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Jason Dean Billingsley Jr. (insert) murdered tech CEO Pava LaPere, police said. Frank LaPere, Nico LaPere and Caroline Frank, the family of Pava LaPere, founder of tech startup EcoMap Technologies, speak during a vigil on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023, in Baltimore. (Mug shot: Baltimore Police Department; image of the vigil: AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Police announced early Thursday that Jason Dean Billingsley Jr., 32, the man who allegedly killed tech CEO Pava LaPere, has been arrested. Officials scheduled a press conference to take place at 11 a.m. to discuss the capture.
Officers in Baltimore, Maryland, previously said that Billingsley was the person who fatally attacked LaPere in her apartment building, leaving her with blunt force trauma. Officers found her body Tuesday morning.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that a missing person’s call had been dispatched a short time prior,” they said.
Officers revealed Wednesday that Billingsley was also wanted in a separate horrifying crime from Sept. 19.
Billingsley banged on the door of a rooming home the night of Sept. 19 on the 800 block of Edmondson Avenue, claimed to be a maintenance worker, kicked down the front door when no one answered, pointed a gun at a man and a woman, bound them with handcuffs and duct tape, raped the woman, cut her neck, doused both victims with a liquid and set them on fire, a source with knowledge of the investigation told The Baltimore Banner.
The man and woman, both 26, survived with burns and other injuries, Baltimore NBC affiliate WBAL reported at the time. A 5-year-old child in the home was taken to the hospital due to smoke inhalation.
Billingsley had been on the Maryland sex offender registry for a 2015 guilty plea for sex offense in the first degree.
Circuit Judge Emanuel Brown did not agree with the deal for 30 years in prison with all but 14 years suspended, but he accepted it in order to spare the traumatized survivor from having to testify at a trial, according to The Baltimore Banner.
“This case deserves a lot more than the 14,” he said.
Billingsley got out of prison on Oct. 5, 2022, reportedly because of good-time credit.
More Law&Crime coverage: Fugitive couple arrested after weekslong manhunt for allegedly killing a man over a property dispute and then burning his body in fire pit
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