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  • NEW CHARGES IN BILLINGS MURDER CASE

    Posted on September 7th, 2010 zshapiro 2 comments

    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.

    Notes:

    1. The thieves apparently took the wrong safe. It had papers and the children’s medication. Another safe had $164,000 in it. ↩
    2. Not including the murder weapon. ↩
    3. The Wiggins apparently are not getting along too well. Since her arrest Pamela Wiggins has been convictedL of bigamy. ↩
    Homicide, Immunity, Robbery , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments »
     

    2 Responses to “NEW CHARGES IN BILLINGS MURDER CASE”

    1. Eric Stevenson November 5th, 2011 at 10:29 am

      Mr. Shapiro,

      I appreciate your assessments, but gladly can report that not only do I disagree with your assessment that immunity is not cross-jurisdictional, a judge in Mississippi agrees that it is and dismissed the charges against Mr. Wiggins http://ricksblog.biz/hugh-wiggins-case-thrown-out/

      I represented Mr. Wiggins in Florida and was the attorney who counseled him when he accepted immunity. Along with co-counsel Christoper Klotz, I also represented him when he was charge in Mississippi. He was granted use immunity and derivative use immunity in Florida. It would be a serious due process issue if he waived counsel and confessed under a grant of immunity that could be ignored by another jurisdiction. The Supreme Court held in Murphy v. Waterfront Commission, 378 US 52 (1964) that federal authorities are obligated to honor and respect state grants of immunity. Fortunately for Mr. Wiggins, a Mississippi judge followed the logical conclusion that one state must also honor and respect another state’s grant of immunity following not only Murphy, but also precedent set forth in Wright v. McAdory, 536 So. 2d 897 (Miss. 1988). If you’d like a copy of the order, I’d be happy to fax or email it to you.

      Keep up the good work fighting for justice. I’m glad I stumbled upon your blog. I’ve picked up some good information, and I hope I’ve given you some as well.

      Sincerely,

      Eric D. Stevenson, Attorney
      Pensacola, Forida

    2. zshapiro

      zshapiro November 7th, 2011 at 2:45 pm

      Congratulations

    Leave a Reply

 

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