Solo shooter killed couple, suspect claims
PENSACOLA (AP) – One man planned a Florida home invasion and fatally shot a couple who had several adopted special needs children, one of eight suspects in the case told investigators.
According to court documents released Tuesday, Fredrick Thornton, 19, said martial arts instructor Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr., 35, organized the July 9 attack and killed Byrd Billings, 66, and Melanie Billings, 43. Gonzalez proclaimed his innocence in a statement he read at a court hearing after his arrest.
Thornton, who is one of seven people charged with murder, made the comments during a recorded interrogation in jail. The statement was included in an affidavit supporting a warrant to search a mini van belonging to one of the eight people arrested in the complex case. Authorities say the home was invaded by masked men dressed as ninjas. Their images were captured on a home security system.
The couple was killed in the bedroom of their sprawling home, while nine of their children were in other parts of the home. Another child went to a neighbor’s home for help and the neighbor called authorities. All the children have various special needs and need nursing and other care. The Billings had 17 children total, 13 adopted, many with special needs.
Thornton also said that after the home break-in, the seven men gathered at an antique mall in Gulf Breeze, Fla., and met a woman in a maroon mini van where they had placed a safe from the Billings home. Antique mall owner Pamela Long Wiggins, 47, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact and investigators dug up the safe from the backyard of her home in suburban Gulf Breeze.
Wiggins was released on $10,000 bond.
Another suspect, Wayne Coldiron, 41, told investigators he met a woman named Pam who drove a maroon mini van at a home in Gulf Breeze before the home invasion.
The affidavit said the home was owned by Wiggins and “a subsequent search warrant of this residence revealed a number of firearms as well as ammunition as well as a 9 mm handgun which is the same caliber of weapon used the homicide.”