- Documents obtained by Insider reveal new details on Jason Billingsley, suspect in tech CEO Pava LaPere’s death.
- In 2015, Billingsley pleaded guilty to a first-degree sex offense, receiving a 30-year sentence.
- The victim in the prior case told police that Billingsley forced her to give him oral sex at knifepoint.
Content warning: This story mentions a description of sexual assault.
The suspect accused of murdering Maryland tech CEO Pava LaPere pleaded guilty to a violent sex crime in 2015 and was released seven years into a 30-year sentence.
According to an application for a statement of charges obtained by Insider, in 2013, Billingsley was charged with assault and attempted rape. Billingsley was accused of assaulting a woman, threatening her with a knife, and forcing her to give him oral sex at knifepoint, according to the court document.
The woman told officials with the Baltimore Police Department that after a fight with her boyfriend, Billingsley passed by where she was sitting and invited her to stay with him. After she agreed, Billingsley brought her to a home and claimed he had locked his keys inside, asking the woman to climb into a window and unlock the house.
Once inside, Billingsley told the woman that he wanted to have sex, per the complaint. After she said no, he hit her in the head, strangled her, and pulled out a knife, the woman told BPD.
At that point, Billingsley told the woman to give him oral sex, and out of fear for her safety, she complied, the woman told police, per the statement. Afterward, Billingsley then took $53 from her wallet and left, threatening her to keep quiet because, he told her, “my aunt is a police officer,” according to the statement.
That night, the woman flagged down a stranger who transported her to a hospital, where she underwent a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam.
In 2015, Billingsley pleaded guilty to a first-degree sex offense and received a 30-year sentence, James Bentley, a spokesman for the Baltimore State’s Attorney Office, told Insider.
“He plead guilty to the commission of a crime of violence and received 30 years suspend all but 14 years and 5 years’ probation from the judge,” Bentley told Insider. “Generally, for crimes of violence, offenders only serve half to three-quarters of the time given.”
Billingsley was released in October 2022.
On Monday, BPD said that LaPere, the founder and CEO of EcoMap Technologies, who recently made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 list, was found dead at an apartment with signs of blunt-force trauma.
Later on Tuesday, BPD announced a warrant for the arrest of Billingsley, and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said that there “was no way in hell” that Billingsley should have been released in October 2022.
“This individual will kill and he will rape,” acting BPD commissioner Richard Worley said at the conference, adding a message to Billingsley. “Every single police officer in Baltimore city and the state of Maryland, as well US Marshals, are looking for you.”
Police said that a missing persons call was made about LaPere shortly before her body was found. Authorities did not provide Insider with details on who reported LaPere missing.
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