Suspect in the murder of young CEO served 7 years of a 30 year sentence for rape

Twenty-six year old Pava LaPere was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the CEO of her own company.

LaPere, 26, the co-founder of startup EcoMap Technologies who was named on this year’s Forbes 30 under 30 list for social impact, was reported missing Monday and later found with blunt-force trauma to her head, police said.

She was reported to have been found dead inside her swanky Mount Vernon apartment, but sources close to the investigation told the Baltimore Banner that her badly beaten and partially clothed body was actually discovered on the building’s roof.

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Police have identified Jacob Billingsley as the suspect in this murder. Billingsley is 6’4″ and weighs 300 pounds. He has a long criminal record including a conviction for rape for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Adult court records reveal that at 18-years-old Billingsley pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in 2009.

He was ultimately given two years of supervised probation but violated the terms and was convicted in a second-degree assault case in 2011, where he served a two-year prison sentence.

After being released, mere months later in 2013, Billingsley was convicted of a rape attempt.

A judge handed down a 30-year sentence with an expected 2043 release date, however, 16 years of the sentence was suspended, and he was given five years of supervised probation.

The Baltimore Sun has a description of the case Billingsley was convicted for.

In the 2015 sex offense case, a woman told police that Billingsley forced her to perform a sex act in June 2013. He encountered her alone late at night after her boyfriend kicked her out of his house after a fight and Billingsley offered her a place to sleep.

Billingsley told the woman he had locked his keys inside his house, and they both climbed in the window of a home, according to charging documents. Inside, Billingsley strangled her, threatened to shoot her and then brandished a knife, she told investigators.

After raping her, he took $53 from her wallet and told her, “You better not tell anyone about this. My aunt is a police officer,” and that no one would believe her, according to charging document.

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So Billingsley got 30 years and was labeled a tier 3 sex offender which means he’s required to register every three months for life. Court records indicate he hadn’t done that since being released last October.

The murder of Pava LaPere isn’t the only crime he’s suspected of committing since then.

Police said Wednesday that Billingsley is also wanted in connection with a case of attempted murder, arson and rape in a different part of the city on Sept. 19, and announced a cash reward for information leading to his arrest.

That’s a lot of damage for one person to do in the pan of a week and he may not be done. Police warned that Billingsley was extremely dangerous and would kill and rape again given the chance.

“We implore residents to be aware of your surroundings at all times,” acting Baltimore police commissioner Richard Worley said at the Tuesday news conference. “This individual will kill, and he will rape. He will do anything he can to cause harm.”

Police are urging him to turn himself in and Billingsley’s mother said she told him the same thing when she texted him Tuesday.

“I told him to turn himself in because they’re going to kill him,” said Scarlett Billingsley, 72, who spoke to NBC News on Wednesday afternoon. She identified herself as the mother of Jason Billingsley, 32, who’s wanted on first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 26-year-old Pava LaPere, CEO and founder of EcoMap Technologies.

“I don’t want police to shoot him because they think he has a gun,” Scarlett Billingsley added…

She said her son showed her a gun Monday, but believes he’s trying to sell it.

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So she doesn’t want police to think he has a gun but also…he has a gun. In fact he’s wanted for another case in which he allegedly stole a gun.

I don’t know what went wrong with Billingsley to make him into what he’s become, but Maryland has abolished the death penalty so his only choices are a speedy trial followed by life in prison or a shootout with police in which he is killed. Either way, he should never be allowed to walk the streets again.

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