Byrd and Melanie Billings -- Found Deceased 7/9/09

PENSACOLA, Florida (CNN) -- A man police believe organized the slaying of a Florida couple earlier this month told authorities he knew the victims and received financial support from them for a martial arts studio, according to court documents released Monday.

Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., 35, is one of seven people charged with murder in the July 9 deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings of Beulah, Florida. The Billingses, who were known for adopting special-needs children, were fatally shot during a home invasion robbery, police said. Nine of their children were in the home at the time.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/20/florida.slain.couple/index.html

WoW ! J4........... thanks for posting this !

I don't know if anyone knows who Albatross234 is on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-fWoGk6RO4 However, she has some very interesting videos on her space that are stating this couple is not innocent in all this. It sounds like we are going to get some very interesting stuff on this couple and crime. I do NOT want to start rumor on this. I don't know where this information came from. However, I am sure we have all thought that there is WAY more to this story than meets the eye and has come out. This to me is sick if true. It sure would explain a lot about the husband. It's especially interesting considering the fact he went from being flat broke to being really wealthy!

there is no special bonus paid to you by a state agency to take in disabled children from foster care.
you can however get disability for each and every disabled child and you get maxium benefits plus everything they need provided.
so I am sure they became wealthy by having in 12 disability checks a month in florida its probably nine hundred a month x 12 however.........
They did have to hire help and the kids did live nice and they could very well have been good folks.
but this video of this lady talking she is nuts......no one gets paid a bonus to take in a child from foster care and adopt it, foster parents get paid but an adoptive parent does not.
I imagine the checks made them wealthy. But look how much is involved in caring for these children.
How much emotional pull is on them . money corrupts those who have it and those who want it.

From what I understood (I think on HLN) they were talking about these people (at least some of them) KNEW the family. Something about the couple may have funded the business of one of the people involved. I'll check around tonight for some more information on this case.

This case gets more strange by the day.

would they get disability if they adopted those kids?

i just read the comment again and i see that my last question was already answered.

the child receives a check and whomever is taking care of said child gets to use the check they receive.

Byrd and Melanie Billings Murder: Jury Recommends Death for Ringleader in Fla. Killings

October 29, 2010 3:12 PM



PENSACOLA, Fla. (CBS/AP) A jury has recommended that a karate instructor get the death penalty for murdering a wealthy Florida couple Byrd and Melanie Billings while their nine special-needs children cowered or slept nearby.

The jurors voted 10-2 Friday that Patrick Gonzalez Jr. be executed for last year's murder of the couple in their Florida Panhandle home.

Under Florida law, Judge Nicholas Geeker will impose the sentence later but must give the jury's recommendation "great weight."

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20021216-504083.html

No death penalty for Stallworth

Published 10:39pm Wednesday, December 8, 2010

~Snipped~

State attorney Bill Eddins said in a press release that although Stallworth and another defendant, Wayne Coldiron, participated in the crime, they never fired their guns.

“The State must show that the imposition of the death penalty is proportional when compared to other individuals charged in the same criminal case where the death penalty was imposed,” according to a statement from Eddins’ office.

Read more: http://www.brewtonstandard.com/2010/12/08/no-death-penalty-for-stallworth/

Gonzalez Jr. to learn his fate in Billings killings

February 14, 2011
Kris Wernowsky

The man convicted of killing Byrd and Melanie Billings is scheduled to learn his fate Thursday.

Circuit Judge Nick Geeker is expected to announce his decision on whether Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. will be executed for the July 9, 2009, murders of the couple inside their Beulah home.

Gonzalez Jr., 36, was convicted in October of firing the fatal shots in the killings, which took place during an unsuccessful attempt to steal a safe that contained $164,000 from the Beulah couple's home.

Read more: http://www.pnj.com/article/20110214/NEWS01/102140321/1006/NEWS01/Gonzalez-Jr.-to-learn-his-fate-in-Billings-killings

Gonzalez Jr. Sentenced to Death

Thursday, February 17 2011, 11:38 PM EST

ESCAMBIA COUNTY - Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Junior will be put to death for the murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings.

A jury convicted Gonzalez in December of shooting the couple to death during a robbery of their home in July of 2009.

Today, Judge Nicholas Geeker sentenced him for those crimes.

Read more: http://www.weartv.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wear_vid_13963.shtml

Third trial set to start in Billings murders

Kris Wernowsky
February 28, 2011

Jury selection is scheduled to begin today for the former U.S. Air Force staff sergeant charged in the killings of Byrd and Melanie Billings.

Donnie Stallworth, 29, a former staff sergeant at Hurlburt Field, will stand trial this week on charges of first-degree murder and home invasion the well-publicized July 9, 2009, murders of the Beulah couple.

Read more: http://www.pnj.com/article/20110228/NEWS01/102280310/Third-trial-set-to-start-in-Billings-murders

"Stallworth turned himself in to investigators at the urging of his family, and his wife, Tasha Stallworth, gave a tape-recorded statement about her husband's behavior in the days after the robbery.

"He said he did something really bad and that he needed to be a man and own up to his actions," she told investigators.

She said her husband was withdrawn after returning home the night of the murders and began weeping on July 12 when he saw a television report about suspects in the Billings' case."

I'm sure he's still weeping. Such a ridiculous, violent crime and for what? Nothing, they didn't get a dime out of it. I hope he gets life in prison as well.