On April 9, 2009 at least three people invaded the Beulah, Florida residence of Melanie and Byrd Billings, murdering them and stealing a safe. Ten of their children, eight of whom were special needs children the couple had adopted were home at the time but none of them were injured.

Escambia County authorities charged eight people in the case. Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., Leonard Gonzalez, Sr., Donnie Ray Stallworth, Wayne Thomas Coldiron, Frederick Lee Thornton Jr., Gary Lamont Sumner, and Rakeem Florence. were charged with murder. Florence, a juvenile was charged as an adult and plead guilty to second degree murder. The eighth person, wealthy realtor, Pamela Long Wiggins was charged with being an accessory to the the crime. Her car was used as the get away car and a safe ¹stolen from the property was buried in her back yard.

Friday, Wiggins, her husband Hugh, and a friend, Eddie Denson were indicted in Mississippi as accessories after the fact. The Wigginses brought a number of guns ² used in the invasion of the Billings residence to Denson who lived in Mississippi to keep after the murder.

Hugh Wiggins had been given immunity in Florida in exchange for giving a statement. But the immunity did not prevent him from being indicted in Mississippi. Accepting a grant of immunity has a number of problems, not the least of which is that immunity is limited to the jurisdiction that grants it. In other words immunity granted in one states does not prevent an indictment in another state. Likewise immunity granted in Federal Court does not prevent an indictment in state court and immunity granted in state court does not prevent an indictment in Federal Court.

One may question the judgment of Hugh Wiggins’ attorney for letting him get immunity in Florida when he is facing charges in Mississippi but the decision may have been a wise choice. In Mississippi he is only facing five years while his wife ³ is not only facing five years in Mississippi but she is also facing thirty years in Florida.