The man accused of killing Baltimore tech entrepreneur Pava LaPere days after setting two people on fire is seeking to exclude a statement he gave to police from his upcoming murder trial.
Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert K. Taylor is slated to preside over a hearing Thursday afternoon where lawyers for Jason Billingsley and prosecutors will argue about his statement to police and its admissibility as evidence at trial.
Billingsley faces back-to-back trials beginning August 26 on charges for setting the people ablaze and killing LaPere.
Attorneys in the case appeared in court Thursday morning, but Taylor pushed the hearing back until 2 p.m. because a detective who interviewed Billingsley was not available.
On Monday night, public defender Jason Rodriguez filed a motion to exclude Billingsley’s statement to police from the murder trial. The motion is not publicly available, and prosecutors have yet to respond in writing.
Assistant State’s Attorney Elizabeth Stock said in court Thursday morning that the defense argued that detectives misstated Billingsley’s Miranda rights when they interviewed him. Those constitutional protections include a person’s right to remain silent and the right to have an attorney present when they face questioning by authorities.
Billingsley, 32, is charged with first-degree murder in LaPere’s death. The 26-year-old LaPere was discovered dead with obvious head injuries on the roof of her Mount Vernon apartment building on Sept. 25. A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and said she was killed by strangulation and blunt force trauma.
LaPere’s killing sent shockwaves throughout Baltimore and the city’s tight knit tech community, ultimately inspiring legislation in Annapolis. Billingsley previously had been convicted of a sex offense but was released from prison early after earning diminution, or “good time,” credits. A bill, signed into law, will prevent people found guilty of first-degree rape from earning diminution credits.
According to charging documents, detectives poured over surveillance footage that helped them identify Billingsley and showed that the killing happened Sept. 22.
Three days before police said he killed LaPere, Billingsley identified himself as a maintenance worker and kicked his way into a woman’s apartment in the city’s Upton neighborhood with a gun, according to charging documents. He allegedly handcuffed a man and bound the woman with duct tape, raping her and slashing her neck, before setting them and the apartment ablaze.
Billingsley faces 26 charges related to that Sept. 19 break-in and attack, including two counts each of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault as well as rape, home invasion, false imprisonment, arson and firearms offenses.
Detectives did not mention Billingsley’s statement in charging documents for LaPere’s killing or the home invasion.
Prosecutors will seek a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for Billingsley if he is convicted.
Rodriguez said Billingsley is set to stand trial first on charges related to the home invasion, and then for murder in LaPere’s killing. Stock said the motion to exclude the police statement applied only to the murder case against Billingsley.
This article will be updated.