Leonard Gonzalez Jr. has been on Florida’s death row for over 15 years for masterminding a plot to kill and rob Byrd and Melanie Billings in 2009, but the decision on whether he remains there will likely be pushed further into 2027.
Gonzalez and four of his seven co-conspirators broke into the Billings’ home and killed the Pensacola philanthropists — who had 17 children, of which 13 were adopted and had various disabilities — in an effort to steal a safe they believed held $13 million.
After his 2011 conviction on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder and one count of home invasion robbery with a firearm, a jury recommended by a 10-2 vote that Gonzalez be sentenced to death. Former Judge Nickolas Geeker agreed with the recommendation and sentenced Gonzalez to death.
However, in 2017 Geeker granted Gonzalez’s postconviction motion for a new penalty phase citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Florida v. Hurst. In that case, which originated in Escambia County, the justices ruled that Florida’s death penalty processes violated the Sixth Amendment because judges, as opposed to jurors, decided the factors permitting death sentences.
Gonzalez was on track to have his new penalty phase tried at the beginning of 2027, but his attorney, Ira Still, withdrew from the case Tuesday due to health-related reasons. Gonzalez told the judge he was concerned his new counsel may rush through the case in order to meet the deadline for the tentatively scheduled January 2027 trial.
The judge seemed to agree.
“It’s not in a position where I’m going to push this to be tried in six months, because I know the volume of evidence the state has as well as what your attorneys have done,” Chief Judge John Simon told Gonzalez during the June 16 hearing. “And the attorneys who I end up appointing are going to have to get up to speed and convince me they are prepared to go forward before we get this matter set.”
Florida lawmakers also determined in 2016 that a jury’s death sentence recommendation should be unanimous, a law that was overturned by the legislature in 2023.
Simon said he will submit an order within a few days appointing new attorneys for Gonzalez for his penalty phase in which a new jury will determine, again, if he ought to be put to death. A status conference for Gonzalez’s case is scheduled for Dec. 28, when the attorneys are expected to inform the judge where they stand in preparation for the penalty phase trial.
What did Leonard Gonzalez Jr. do in 2009?
On the night of July 9, 2009, Gonzalez — along with Frederick Thornton, Rakeem Florence, Donnie Stallworth and Wayne Coldiron — broke into the Billings home wearing black clothing, masks, gloves and carrying firearms.
Three other coconspirators who did not break in to the home included Gonzalez’s father Leonard Gonzalez Sr., Gary Sumner and Pamela Long-Wiggins.
The five men who broke into the home were not aware the home was monitored by video surveillance to keep watch on the nine children who stayed inside the house. That footage caught Gonzalez Jr. firing a single shot into the ground when Byrd Billings said he didn’t have any money.
Gonzalez Jr. then shot him once in each leg before Byrd and his wife were fatally shot in their master bedroom.
When one of the children found the parents dead, that child alerted a caregiver who lived on the property. Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded and during the investigation traced weapons, shell casings and DNA back to the group of men who were ultimately convicted of the crime.
Gonzalez Jr. was the only one from the group of coconspirators to be senteced to death.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Billings murder mastermind could get off death row, but not this year
Reporting by Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Benjamin Johnson, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
