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[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
00:01:45
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that gets more done before midnight than most do
00:01:51
in a day he is the captain that's cuz I'm a real Gilpin it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
00:01:59
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we're under a lot of pressure to release a jib I like your jib shirt I like the color your jib so if anybody out there
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at true Crim garage.com or to the captain at truecrimegarage and one more shout out last but not least actually
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how about just last because this is from Aaron and Fort me Maryland who says keep
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up the excellent work Captain Nick not so much so I think it's a smart bet that somewhere in Fort me Aaron is running
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around wearing a team captain shirt to which I say take it off and burn it come to the dark side thank you to everybody
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except for Aaron for filling up the fridge for this week's show and if you want to buy us around for next week's
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show go to True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button all right that's enough of the business grab a
00:04:02
chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music] crime Brandon Billings had been found
00:04:22
dead in his pickup truck he had been shot to death and he was found around 2:30 p.m. on October 6th 20 2 just a day
00:04:31
after his 18th birthday the young man was not known to have any enemies at all nor thought to be involved in any
00:04:40
criminal activity Brandon's parents Kyle and Sherry Billings still found themselves listening for the sound of
00:04:47
Brandon's pickup truck pulling in the driveway even a month or so after his death yeah and there was something too
00:04:55
where the the mother would be asleep and as she'd be coming out of the sleep she
00:05:00
would think that she heard him talking yeah that her his parents had said that it would have been easier if their son
00:05:07
had died in a car accident or from something like cancer that at least would be understandable something that
00:05:14
they could understand what they could not understand is why somebody would kill Brandon Sherry said whoever did
00:05:23
this is a coward to shoot him from behind a coward then and a coward now not brave enough to admit what they have
00:05:32
done she and Kyle always believed that the killer was someone Brandon knew although not very well they worried that
00:05:40
the killer might be somebody that they had seen since the slaying in the store or maybe on the street someone that they
00:05:48
had seen in person maybe up to like 20 times they stated that Brandon was the type of person that would walk away from
00:05:55
any type of trouble and he was nothing but a big gentle giant that did not deserve to die yeah but sometimes you
00:06:04
can't walk away sometimes the fight comes to you and you have to defend yourself mhm well and that leaves us
00:06:11
with a lot of questions as to why Brandon was in the area where he was found who would have came after him if
00:06:17
he had no enemies when you look at this from everything I can tell from people he went to school with from his family
00:06:24
and friends from people that lived in the area there seemed no reason for him to be in any type of altercation that
00:06:30
would have led to his death would have led to him being found shot to death in his vehicle yeah but what were his I
00:06:37
mean do we have anybody that he was friends with that have any explanation why he was out that late or where
00:06:44
possibly he was heading to we we have no information regarding that and that's what's so confusing here with this case
00:06:50
uh why was he not heading home why was he by himself at 3:40 in the morning right why was the seat belt cut why was
00:06:57
the shirt placed above his head 6 months after Brandon's death police still had no motive and no suspect the reward fund
00:07:05
had grown to nearly $14,000 remind remind you this was one that friends and family had to put
00:07:12
together themselves they had to fund raise for this reward fund the week before the senior class photo at
00:07:19
Brandon's High School Brandon's parents held a brief meeting with the senior class to thank them for being friends in
00:07:26
both life and death with Brandon the family gave thank you cards and senior photos of Brandon to each member of the
00:07:34
graduating class and all of his football teammates each card contained a short message inside from the family that said
00:07:43
a kind word for everyone a stranger never met always a friendly handshake on that you could bet from the gentle giant
00:07:51
Brandon Billings number 79 thank you for being a friend to Brandon love the Billings family and Brandon's mother
00:07:58
Sher gave a speech at this event um and I'll pass along some of her words she said that our Brandon should be here
00:08:07
among all of you but due to someone who didn't think his life was worth living he won't be here with us please be
00:08:15
careful and know who your dearest friends are because Brandon's killer could have been someone he knew very
00:08:24
well so we have the start of the investigation and we have the autopsy but where do we go from here here well
00:08:30
this point leads us to about the one-year anniversary of Brandon's death and at this point in the investigation
00:08:37
Captain the police said on record that they have about three or four individuals that they were quote unquote
00:08:43
looking at the police were convinced that all it would take to solve this crime is for one person to come forward
00:08:51
one person to say the right thing more than that more than hard evidence that would be what would Crack the Case when
00:08:58
you hear the police say that yeah they're looking for a tip and they might have three or four individuals that they
00:09:05
are quote unquote looking at that to me means that they got some people that they are that are on their radar that
00:09:10
they've not ruled out but they also don't they don't have anything right right that's what basically it's a lot
00:09:16
of words saying we have nothing please someone call and give us the information that we need thankfully the family and
00:09:23
friends were the ones that were able to get together and put together this reward money to maybe drum up somebody
00:09:30
like you said you know you you're you're dirt bag if you need money to call in the tip um but uh some people sometimes
00:09:36
that happens mhm five years later wow we're to we're going to have to keep fast forward we're going to have to fast
00:09:43
forward to move along Delan because there's a lot to cover here but five years later in October of 2007 the
00:09:51
sheriff said the case was not a dead issue that they work on the case of Brandon Billings all the time in fact he
00:10:00
says at this time on the 5-year anniversary we have one investigator that is currently running down a tip
00:10:06
right now every call that comes through and every tip that has been called in we
00:10:13
run and we work it very hard to the end well the Billings family held an event at a at a local park there and Brandon's
00:10:21
mom Sherry called this her son's birthday in heaven celebration this of course was a very
00:10:28
nice to do but the other thing here is the Billings family is also using this moment to point out some things that
00:10:36
have bothered them regarding the investigation into their son's death okay and the years since Brandon's death
00:10:42
his parents hope that the case would be solved you know where their Hope was had
00:10:48
now turned to frustration with the sheriff's department and its handling of the investigation at the event Sherry
00:10:55
pointed out that she would endorse the man running against the current sheriff in the upcoming election talking to the
00:11:02
local newspaper Sherry was quick to point out her endorsement and talking to the crowd there she said something's not
00:11:09
right folks we have to suffer it every day maybe because of mistakes that the sheriff's department has made responding
00:11:17
to this the sheriff told the local media that his Department had investigated The
00:11:21
Killing to the best of its ability pointing out that they had two investigators all of the Sheriff's
00:11:28
Office Three Special Agents from the state police and all agencies in surrounding cities and counties
00:11:35
assisting in the case early on so there was no shortage of people working this case as far as the sheriff's concerned
00:11:43
right but then the rumor Mills start in this small town because you have no leads basically you have uh you a
00:11:50
sheriff's department that you feel is inadequate or or why aren't they solving this and this is kind of when the small
00:11:57
town starts talking about the conspir iracy of maybe Brandon stumbled upon something he wasn't supposed to and
00:12:06
maybe this was uh uh done by the hands of the law well Sher Billings felt that the FBI should have been called in to
00:12:13
help with the case uh in response to this the sheriff stated that the FBI does not investigate murders he talked
00:12:19
to them and they did offer any assistance in lab work and things like that now in November of 2007 after the
00:12:28
election there was a new sheriff in town and along with that the new position that he inherited he also inherited the
00:12:35
Brandon Billings murder investigation well now there's a new sheriff in town so what's he going to do with it well
00:12:42
you know what the other thing I want to point out here too Captain is so there's
00:12:45
a new sheriff in town is you know what happens with these parents when when their son or daughter is taken from them
00:12:52
or killed and there and the case is not solved they get interviewed by the you know the newspapers come calling the the
00:13:00
local news media comes calling around the anniversary every year and wants to get their reaction to why the case isn't
00:13:08
solved how do you feel about this you know your your poor son your poor daughter and then we have these poor
00:13:14
people the Billings family that have to relive this with these phone calls M but
00:13:21
they also have the added the added anguish of they have their son's birthday and then the
00:13:28
following day is the anniversary of his death and that you know that's got to hit them extremely hard every fall every
00:13:36
year well yeah not to mention all the football games before that you're going to think about your son you know I don't
00:13:44
know if there's any weight to The Conspiracy Theory here yeah I I don't really I couldn't get any information as
00:13:52
to how that tied in I really feel like it's just a rumor situation where we just have a sit situation where because
00:13:59
there was no leads uh because there doesn't the investigation seems to be going nowhere
00:14:06
that you're almost left with that conclusion at some point well one of the things that we talked about was his seat
00:14:11
belt was cut MH never seen that ever before in a crime that I know of right person's seat belt being cut like that
00:14:19
doesn't make a lot of sense at all but then we brought up a point that the EMT was there first well let's think about
00:14:25
this and you bring up a good point because like you and discussed with this seat belt and the confusing way that the
00:14:32
crime scene itself is described to us in media reports there's a couple things that I'm thinking of here one we we may
00:14:40
have a situation where like you said the EMT could have cut that seat belt fromand you always have a situation and
00:14:48
we know that the officer said that when he arrived the first responding officer said that when he got there the EMT was
00:14:54
already there right we also see where later evidence possible EV evidence is trampled over with the footprint near
00:15:02
the vehicle right which is suspicious yeah so makes you wonder hey did EMT cut that seat belt and it actually has
00:15:09
nothing to do with the crime itself it just wasn't reported back to the the police officers right shoty work though
00:15:17
the other thing that I want to think about too is if you don't have any leads and you can't find the murder
00:15:25
weapon you have to hold a lot of that stuff at the crime scene secret to yourself you have to hold that to
00:15:32
yourself because there might be things about specific details about that crime scene that maybe only the killer would
00:15:38
know and some of those things already came out in the media we know that the wallet was missing we know
00:15:46
that the ID was thrown in the water those things are already out so that's why I think we have this other
00:15:52
information that's kind of reported Lucy goosey in a way that they might be holding some of that information back
00:15:59
because I think what probably happened is that the EMT arriving first on the scene may have thought that they were
00:16:05
arriving at a car accident there some kind of car fatality and they get there and they learn very quickly that that is
00:16:12
not the case we also have the strange mention of his of his shirt of Brandon's shirt being pulled up over his head yeah
00:16:21
that also seems strange because we have two witnesses that arrived one who found
00:16:25
the body and another officer who's one of the first people on the scene saying that I saw what looked to be bullet
00:16:33
gunshots bullet wounds in behind the ear right but you could have the shirt over
00:16:38
just his face mhm and then I'd wonder you know as far as uh Ricky Stewart goes like did did he happen to pull the shirt
00:16:46
over his face for whatever reason like cuz you know that he passed on I I don't know like it just seems a little sketchy
00:16:55
to me well here's here's the thing the rumor mill was going so rampant that in 2008 it made the papers to the point
00:17:04
where they had to interview the Commonwealth Attorney the Grayson Commonwealth Attorney because there was
00:17:10
rumors going around that they had finally had a person of interest in the case that had been named a person of
00:17:15
interest in the Cold Case right but they six years later they addressed the rumors stating that the investigation
00:17:22
into Brandon Billings murder is continuing although no Persons of Interest have been identified both the
00:17:29
Commonwealth attorney's office and the Sheriff's Office continue to extend their support to the Billings family I'm
00:17:35
going to jump ahead two more years here Captain this takes us to 2010 where so far there's been no
00:17:42
suspects or Persons of Interest named in the Brandon Billings case no one has been arrested obviously well there seems
00:17:49
to be almost no movement on this thing at all for many years well we finally are you ready here are you ready for a
00:17:57
break in the case Captain yeah cuz I can understand what Brandon's parents are are going through I can
00:18:04
understand their frustration with the investigation well hold on to your buns because we are going to get a big break
00:18:11
finally in this case okay so in 2010 2010 mhm a former living girlfriend of a man named Chad Allen Reeves comes
00:18:24
forward and she is accusing him of having killed brand Billings or been involved in the killing of Brandon
00:18:31
Billings yeah but we've seen this before right with the ex-girlfriends coming out
00:18:37
ex-girlfriends of a criminal and then they Implement them in a case that maybe they're not involved in okay do you want
00:18:44
to hear how this goes down yeah that's why I'm here all right you very dismissive very dismissive well we've
00:18:52
heard this before I didn't mean to be okay the X this is Tammy Simone uh she provided the break that implicated
00:18:59
Reeves in the case she described for investigators what Reeves told her in the hours after Billings was killed on
00:19:07
October 6th 2002 Tammy Simone is a single mom with a small child back in 2002 and both of them were living with
00:19:16
Reeves at the time she said that she was awakened by Reeves at about 5:00 a.m. that day Reeves told Tammy to go
00:19:24
downstairs and then he told her to count what she said says is a large sum of cash that Reeves had laid out on the
00:19:32
kitchen table tamy how much a large sum of cash according to Tammy Reeves Tam or
00:19:39
I'm sorry Tammy Simone Tammy says that Reeves was uh sweating quite a bit and he was obviously
00:19:46
nervous uh saying that he kept saying oh my God oh my God oh my God she knew something was obviously wrong however
00:19:54
Reeves did not say anything other than oh my God and pacing the floor okay he did this for quite some time it sounds
00:20:02
like maybe as long as an hour um then later that day he offered up some more information to tamy and he told her
00:20:11
quote I [ __ ] up my boys [ __ ] up oh he said they well he actually said quote we killed the wrong person it should
00:20:21
have been Brian Hill tamy Simone apparently she left Reeves they split up in 2004 but she did not come forward to
00:20:32
investigators with this story until 2010 6 years later I understand that she has
00:20:38
a child to protect but you have Humanity to protect as well okay so let's get this straight so we have uh Reeves comes
00:20:47
back he has a large sum of money he's oh my God oh my God oh my God right M and then the colonel cust on the
00:20:55
show I was quoting uh this man and Reeves those are not my words but okay so let's let's clear this up a little
00:21:02
bit so what do we know about this Reeves character he was a known drug dealer and
00:21:09
actually there are police and investigators in the area that actually say he was a very good drug dealer
00:21:15
meaning he could move drugs and he didn't get caught doing it right um or he was hard to catch doing it we should
00:21:22
say Tammy the living girlfriend she often would count money for him uh I don't know what the the sum of money was
00:21:30
the amount of the money was right but he would often have her count out the money
00:21:35
for some reason I have no clue what that involves well I just wanted to know because like for some people a large sum
00:21:41
of money is $200 you know and it could have been 200 ons now that's a lot of counting right
00:21:48
uh but or was it thousands of dollars and I think that makes a difference because he is stating we killed the
00:21:55
wrong guy okay so so okay you know implying that they killed Brandon but then he was supposed
00:22:04
to kill this other guy well why was he supposed to kill the other guy you know I'm I'm kind of reading between the
00:22:09
lines here and and looking at this but um so this Brian Hill there there's actually there was no further
00:22:18
information reported on why Brian Hill's name came up in the case or why Reeves and his boys wanted to kill Brian Hill
00:22:29
um I my guess is that it would have been money or drug related right right it sounds to me like Reeves was running
00:22:38
some kind of drug ring that he had people working and selling and moving drugs for him yeah according to
00:22:46
Tammy I'm guessing that you know when when the police and when investigators say that you're a good drug dealer I'm
00:22:53
guessing we're not talking about he was coming home with 50 or 200 or 300 $ right I'm guessing when he came home
00:23:00
with money for Tammy to count it was like she said quote a large sum of money it it appears with his words the the
00:23:08
reason why I bring that up though is because you know we shouldn't assume that this money came from Brandon there
00:23:14
would be no reason I'm actually guessing the money didn't come from Brandon right
00:23:18
right that's what I'm trying to be clear about and he here's my thoughts okay so
00:23:24
when when he says my boy screw up it sounds to me like like his dudes just got the wrong
00:23:32
guy yeah that somehow they just attacked the wrong dude mistaken identity or Brandon was in the happen to be in the
00:23:41
wrong place at the wrong time I don't know the answer to that to paint this picture better that at some point they
00:23:46
either see him at the convenience store or they see this truck and they go that's the guy and they might have
00:23:52
mistaken the truck I think that that I think you're on to something there right and then we have this uh some kind of
00:23:59
evidence that the truck wrecks there's some kind of wreckage right mhm how did that happen mhm and but but at what
00:24:07
point did you know it's the wrong guy because at some point somebody's shooting him from 6 to 12 Ines away yeah
00:24:15
so I don't know but but the the picture is becoming clearer here well and it it actually makes a little bit of sense too
00:24:24
because when we when we were looking into this in the beginning I kept wondering why the hell is this
00:24:30
case so hard to solve we should be able to come up with with some kind at least have a suspect you know they one of the
00:24:38
questions that people ask all the time is you know if you're going to get if you're going to murder somebody right
00:24:44
I've heard this on other uh murder podcast right they sit around talk about how Mur something no but it's just a you
00:24:53
know it's the question that you know when you start looking into these uh cases over and over how would you go
00:25:01
about it where you wouldn't get caught and one of the things is always well you pick somebody you don't know well of
00:25:08
course there's no connection to so you know Brandon might have known about these guys but I don't think he knew
00:25:14
knew these guys well that would be a situation where you're just murdering for fun but let's say sorry about that
00:25:20
well I hope nobody's murdering for fun right but you're you're asking the hypothetical question how would you kill
00:25:27
someone and get away with it well you pick someone that you don't know and if you don't know the person that means you
00:25:32
have no other reason but you want to kill somebody just to kill somebody right but what I'm saying makes this
00:25:37
case so much more difficult is because maybe Brandon didn't know Chad and maybe Chad didn't know Brandon well and that's
00:25:42
what makes sense about this whole scenario because we we you know as you stated as we all know stranger on
00:25:49
Stranger crimes are a million times harder to solve than if it's somebody on your inner circle it makes sense why
00:25:56
this case went C and why they just don't seem to have [Music] anything this show is sponsored by
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Angie that [Music] all right we're back cheers everybody so Captain the Brandon Billings murder is a
00:28:08
Cold Case no more my friend right in 2013 11 years of investigating law enforcement agencies have narrowed down
00:28:18
the evidence enough to indict two suspects in connection with the 2002 death of the G high school student
00:28:25
Brandon Billings the Sheriff says that two men were charged with killing Brandon and they were suspects early on
00:28:33
the men were charged with the murder after other suspects were eliminated and new evidence came forward the murder
00:28:40
suspects are George Albert Harper II he is 40 years old in 2013 and Chad Allen Reeves who is 33 in
00:28:50
2013 right the oh my God oh my God oh my God guy Sheriff Richard vau said that there were a number of suspects in the
00:28:58
initial suspect pool and it was their job to follow up on leads and eliminate suspects until they were left with just
00:29:05
these two the sheriff could not elaborate as to how many other suspects were eliminated now Von took the
00:29:13
investigation over as a cold case in 2008 from the former Sheriff this is Jerry Wilson who whose work was
00:29:21
commended V said we appreciate what Sher what Sheriff Jerry Wilson in the previous administration had done on the
00:29:29
case we picked it up where they had left off spent thousands of hours on that and
00:29:34
we were able to gain additional information the media questioned him about the two suspects that were
00:29:41
arrested Reeves and Harper having been looked at early in the investigation to which the sheriff replied in 80% of cold
00:29:49
cases the killer's name is already in the incident report over time we were able to build the case and work with the
00:29:57
the Commonwealth's Attorney and an investigative grand jury and we were able to get enough to issue indictments
00:30:04
one it probably helps that Reeves ex-girlfriend came forward finally and and basically said hey he confessed to
00:30:11
this crime and at this time once these indictments were issued uh no further information about the case itself
00:30:19
including motive or evidence was released at that time and as usual and rightfully so when arrests are made we
00:30:26
should not expect much information to come out before the trial so at this time just to be clear so at this time
00:30:32
Reeves was in federal prison in Kentucky uh so the state charges will not be tried until the completion of his
00:30:40
Federal sentence and then we have Harper who was already in custody as well he was in the Virginia Department of
00:30:47
Corrections at the time of the two being charged with murder it was uncertain as
00:30:52
to when Harper's murder trial would take place let's go ahead and get to the trial right Captain um so we have Reeves
00:31:00
who's going to go on trial first mhm the prosecution opened up the trial so early
00:31:07
on early testimony showed that Reeves and Harper were both drug dealers although no direct connection between
00:31:15
the two defendants was established early in the trial the prosecutor this is this
00:31:21
is kind of a kick in the gut right here for everybody well better than kicking the balls the prosecutor stated there's
00:31:27
no compelling physical evidence pointing at Reeves you'll see that none of it points to the defendant but none of it
00:31:35
points to anyone else he also acknowledged that the crime scene photos in the autopsy did not fully explain
00:31:43
what had happened okay you got that right he opened they opened up the trial basically saying there's no evidence
00:31:51
directly connecting the defendant the man that we are trying for this murder we have no evidence directly connecting
00:31:58
him to this murder okay well first of all if there is no direct evidence don't have your opening be that hey by the way
00:32:08
that's like going into the locker room you know with your football team saying hey guys I'm just going to let you know
00:32:13
there's no way we can win today you know what I mean like that's basically what they said they they basically lost the
00:32:20
argument right away hey just to let you know there is no evidence yeah I I question that move too my my thought is
00:32:27
that they must have been sitting around for hours going there's when we once we get done
00:32:33
presenting our case the jury's going to go well there was no evidence directly connecting this guy so I think they
00:32:38
thought maybe their best plan of attack was to point that out and state that you
00:32:42
know what it's not going to point to anybody else either so we need you to make a couple leaps for us connecting
00:32:51
him to the case the problem with that is we have a situation where you have to you have to convict him Beyond
00:32:57
A Reasonable Doubt yeah well maybe don't try the case until you have enough evidence yeah so let's let's talk about
00:33:05
some things that were brought up at the trial um nothing they they they basically they stood up and said we have
00:33:13
nothing and then they sat down okay well the investigations timeline we were right Captain suggested that the slang
00:33:21
likely occurred soon after Billings had arrived at the scene where he was found the timeline was based on video showing
00:33:28
him having left the G convenience store at 3:40 a.m. right and then we have Barkley the guy that's camping with his
00:33:36
wife hearing the shots at 4: a.m. so they pointed out that there was no there was no possibility of extra time
00:33:44
involved right this was one of the lead investigators Hyatt he also testified about leads that were chased down in the
00:33:52
case including identifying and locating two men seen on video chatting with Brandon Billings while eating at the GX
00:34:02
store I guess these guys were tracked down to a rodeo in North Carolina they said that they had Departed the store at
00:34:10
the same time that Brandon Billings said that he was heading home right I guess Billings told them that he was heading
00:34:17
home ha also pointed out that a number of 38 caliber Firearms were sent to the State Crime Lab for analysis but no hits
00:34:27
resulted in the 11 years of investigating this murder case so still nothing right well while we're on the
00:34:34
investigations timeline I do want to point out that Todd Perkins another investigator he was called and he was
00:34:41
questioned as to how long the drive would be for Brandon Billings to get from the convenience store to the area
00:34:48
where his truck was later found and Todd Perkins stated that if you're traveling
00:34:53
going the speed limit with the expected amount of traffic which which would be I
00:34:57
would guess would be damn near none at almost 4 in the morning that it would have taken Brandon Billings
00:35:03
approximately 13 minutes to get to that location so they're they're right to say
00:35:09
that it he would have been attacked shortly after having arrived that's roughly within s minutes of the time
00:35:17
that shots were fired so let's get to I want to talk about the star witness remember Tammy Simone she's the
00:35:24
ex-girlfriend of Chad Reeves yeah um let's get to I'm going to give you the shortened version of her testimony
00:35:31
she was she was on the stand longer than anybody else during this trial cuz that's all they had well I guess she
00:35:38
started Living with Chad Reeves when she was 21 this was back in 2001 and we know
00:35:44
that she left him in 2004 Simone's testimony painted a picture of a boyfriend who after she moved in with he
00:35:52
spoiled her and he spoiled her son as well this came with things like new cars vacations lots of gifts Drug Money mhm
00:36:03
uh she never suspected her son uh to have been abused by Chad Reeves never expected any NE never suspected any
00:36:12
abuse however according to Simone Reeves was a very paranoid and controlling person regarding her behavior including
00:36:21
forcing her to take drug test weekly to make sure that she was clean and having her followed okay so he sells drugs but
00:36:31
he wants to make sure that she's clean so much that he's going to have her take a piss test yeah and arresting and
00:36:37
according to her testimony having her followed and recorded by others to make sure she wasn't doing anything behind
00:36:44
his back she said that they did the two of them did have some physical altercations she said that uh Chad
00:36:51
Reeves basically slept all day uh until about 3:00 or 4: in the afternoon he would get up and he would leave in
00:36:59
the evening and he would come home the next morning she said not every day but about 70% of the time Simone related a
00:37:08
story of being uh woken up by him early that morning the the morning in question by
00:37:15
Reeves remember he got her out of bed and told her to go down to the kitchen this is where she counted what is being
00:37:22
called in court a fresh stack of cash some scrilla said that he was said that Reeves was more odd than he had ever
00:37:31
been before I love all these uh losers these odd losers that have girlfriends the the paranoid guy that's following
00:37:40
you well well that's making you piss in a cup and yeah it's it's a tough world for we also have to keep in mind though
00:37:48
that you and I are both are a little iffy on on her story about Reeves being involved am I right in saying that yeah
00:37:58
I mean cuz I mean she has motive to lie basically so it almost makes you I think
00:38:03
if you have to question one thing she's saying you have to question everything she's saying uh but let's let's get back
00:38:09
to that day the day in question the morning in question she said that Reeves was pacing around the kitchen shaking
00:38:16
and he had a hard time breathing she said this went on for about an hour maybe an hour and a half she said he
00:38:22
kept repeating himself throughout that time additionally she said he stood in the doorway and he said Brandon Billings
00:38:29
name over and over again so he knew Brandon well according to this testimony right if if he didn't know him before
00:38:39
Brandon was killed he certainly knew his name after he had been killed right but
00:38:43
we do have evidence that somebody went through his wallet so even if they didn't know him he could have seen that
00:38:49
driver's license and that driver's license could be haunting him and he's sitting there going but again we're
00:38:56
talking about a guy that's named Kyle Brandon Billings mhm so I think this shows some evidence that uh Chad would
00:39:04
have known who he was because if if if this story is true and he's saying Brandon Billings Brandon Billings you
00:39:10
would have to know him enough to know that he goes by Brandon Billings not Kyle Brandon Billings right or Tammy
00:39:16
having read Brandon's name in the newspaper countless times regarding the cold case you know she didn't come
00:39:23
forward with her story until 2010 8 years after Brandon's death 5 years after Reeves had went to prison on drug
00:39:33
charges she said that part of this was because she was afraid um even though Reeves had never hurt her son he had
00:39:41
told her that if she ever left him he would roll my mom up in carpet carpet douse it with kerosene light her on fire
00:39:50
and make me watch he said he would make the people I love disappear like Brandon
00:39:57
Billings and even threatened to have her son taken away to Mexico well the fact that she came out later like I said I
00:40:04
don't applaud that because you know if you have information you need to do the right thing and tell the cops I
00:40:12
understand why you would because you want to protect your family you want to protect your son or your kids and but
00:40:19
the fact that she came out so far later to me that gives her less of a motive to
00:40:27
want to stick it to Chad for whatever reason yeah and I guess I don't so much mind that it's that many years later but
00:40:33
but when you're talking about the guy's in prison I mean he's in prison for years and I understand that he's
00:40:40
probably some kind of leader it sounds like he's some kind of leader of losers um you know but still it's been
00:40:48
five years that he's in prison Chad Reeves leader of losers Tammy says that she stayed with Reeves for a little bit
00:40:56
after after after that night of him talking about Brandon Billings uh only leaving him after she graduated from
00:41:03
college um after she left him and tried to cut off contact with Reeves she said that Reeves shot up her car and at some
00:41:12
point sent a man to her house she said see that's that's the reason why if he's sending people to your house this is the
00:41:20
stuff that sounds scary yeah and she said that she called Reeves crying hysterically reminding him that the car
00:41:28
that she had was her only means of transportation for both her and her son she said that she didn't recall what
00:41:35
Reeves reaction was at the time of that phone call but he eventually called about a week later apologizing and he
00:41:43
offered to have the vehicle fixed if she came back and got in a relationship with
00:41:50
him right at no point in the trial this is kind of the strange thing here though
00:41:55
too and no point in the trial did she did Tammy ever mention the name Brian Hill now remember we stated that that's
00:42:04
in her original in her original report to police yeah that that's who he said that Reeves said that they were supposed
00:42:11
to kill right right right so I'm not certain why the prosecutor wouldn't at least
00:42:20
bring up the person reev stated he was in the intended target of the shooting the ended up killing Brandon Billings
00:42:28
right right right especially when you have a situation where you're saying the autopsy report and the crime scene
00:42:35
photos don't really explain to the jury what happened you kind of have to Bob Ross it and paint this picture for these
00:42:43
people so let's talk about this happy trees we have what would be the connection to these two suspects and the
00:42:52
victim well we have Patricia Davis she is called to the stand she is Brandon Billings Aunt okay she's called to the
00:43:00
stand by the defense which just seems strange but she's asked about George Harper he's the
00:43:08
other suspect he's not on trial here but he's the other suspect in Billings death
00:43:14
Patricia Davis recalled an event at August 2002 called the old Fiddlers convention in G where she and Brandon
00:43:23
were together she and Brandon saw his girlfriend at the time Elizabeth Edwards with this George Harper stating that
00:43:33
Brandon was very upset with this and decided to leave the convention now later in the murder investigation the
00:43:42
Sheriff's Office came to her and presented her with a book of pictures of different people and asked if she had
00:43:48
recognized any of them of as being the person that was seen with Brandon's girlfriend at this convention and she
00:43:55
picked picked out this Harper guy she picked out the George Harper guy so if we buy the girlfriend story against Chad
00:44:02
Reeves then maybe Chad was told by Harper that this was the wrong guy but actually Harper was targeting uh Brandon
00:44:10
for a reason it's just confusing because there doesn't seem to be much of a connection between the two suspects and
00:44:17
the murder victim and there seems to be even less of a connection between the two suspects themselves now I understand
00:44:24
that they're both known drug dealers yeah but they're both drug users as well right um I I don't know that just
00:44:31
because they're a dealer doesn't mean that they're a user um so I mean maybe their their connection is not well known
00:44:39
it's obviously not well known to the police or to the prosecutor because that doesn't seem to be presented very well
00:44:46
at the trial itself now we have uh another woman who's called Jennifer Schaffner is called to the stand and she
00:44:55
worked as a home health care nurse at the time of Bing's death one of her patients was George Harper's grandmother
00:45:03
and she testified that through the course of working there that her and George developed a friendship and during
00:45:10
this friendship Harper once told her I didn't do it this is in reference to Brandon's case I didn't do it but if I
00:45:18
did this is how I would have done it and he pulled her shirt up over her head and
00:45:24
made a gun with his hand and made a gun you know with his fingers and his thumb there right and put it behind her ear
00:45:31
and said Bam Bam Bam she said this scared me enough to quit she didn't quit her job but it sounds like she quit
00:45:39
working for Harper's grandmother so Schaffner decided at first not to go to the Sheriff's office
00:45:47
regarding this and why why put the why pull the shirt up that's I don't know that's just what he did that's just what
00:45:54
he did to her he pulled up her shirt shirt stuck his you know fake gun behind her ear and pretended to be pulling the
00:46:01
trigger mhm the problem with this is this Rings true with some of the facts that we know of the case and how he was
00:46:07
found how Brandon was found Schaffner indicated that Harper was still talking to her even after she no longer had his
00:46:15
grandmother as a client talking to her and texting her some okay this is what I don't understand about the world okay we
00:46:23
have this lady that claims that this individual basically reenacted how he would have done the murder and that's
00:46:30
how the murder took place and it scared you enough to not work for his grandma anymore right but you continue to text
00:46:37
him and talk to him on the phone like it doesn't make any sense so it's like you know then it makes it hard
00:46:46
for me to believe your story at all you know are you stupid are you a liar it doesn't necessarily mean that she was
00:46:53
happy to receive communication from har ER right but she kept replying we don't know that okay we
00:47:01
don't know that because the only other part of her testimony that talks about um her having contact with him after
00:47:08
that particular incident is a situation where he told her and I'm not certain if
00:47:14
this was in person or if it was via text but he told her I wish people would not
00:47:20
talk about me murdering my friend I didn't do it she did respond to him whether it be in person or via text by
00:47:28
saying I told him if he didn't want people to talk about it then he should probably not talk about it anymore
00:47:34
himself okay um so I'm sorry I'm I apologize for going off on there no no you're F you're fine it's it's it's not
00:47:42
clear but it sounds to me like there's a possibility that he may have just tried
00:47:47
to continue talking to her yeah um and he would have had her phone number I'm guessing because she was looking after
00:47:54
his grandmother at some point so let's talk about the defense the defense has some pretty good arguments here the
00:48:03
first one being is that they point out that there are 22 lab reports that are presented at court and
00:48:10
nothing in any of those lab reports points to Chad Reeves having been involved in the
00:48:17
murder of Brandon Billings right stating that basically except for the fact that
00:48:21
we have tamy Simone saying that he was involved we got nothing here we got nothing well right and the prosecution
00:48:28
already said that at the beginning yeah we don't have anything here well they went on to point out that you know
00:48:33
Simone after having left Reeves in 2004 that she had gone to the magistrate to take out a warrant on Chad Reeves for
00:48:43
malicious wounding assault battery and destruction of private property pointing out that during no point of this meeting
00:48:51
with the magistrate did she ever mention the most well-known unsolved murder in the history of Grayson County right then
00:48:59
he points out that in 2010 when she came forward with the story she was flirting
00:49:05
with a cop in GX and then all of a sudden the story comes out he also pointed out that Brandon Billings was
00:49:12
found with his pants unzipped and undone with blood flowing up nothing flowing down his chin he went through several of
00:49:22
the details about the crime that were not known and he actually is getting somewhere
00:49:27
with this and it take a minute to get there but pointing out some other things too that there were tire tracks beside
00:49:34
the rock that was found with Brandon Billings blood on it right states that this was in a turnaround area remember
00:49:42
the investigator stated that it was about a 100 ft away from the truck he's describing this area as an area that
00:49:48
people would turn around their vehicle to go the other direction so this is the first time that they're releasing the
00:49:54
information that Brandon Billings pants were down correct his pants were unzipped and undone it sounds like it
00:50:01
doesn't sound like they were down okay um he also stated that the inside the truck the armrest was tore up and there
00:50:10
was a red baseball cap found somewhere on the ground at the crime scene he's really I think he's bringing this up to
00:50:17
just point out that there's a lot more stuff going on at the crime scene than we were one aware of right and two this
00:50:24
might point to somebody possibly having been in the truck with Brandon before he was killed
00:50:32
yeah he also stated that um that when Brandon's truck hit the creek at least one wheel was spinning in the mud so
00:50:43
they had some kind of evidence of this and that the uh did I state that the the keys were found in the ignition of the
00:50:50
truck no no oh and here's another here's an answer to your question the truck was
00:50:56
in neutral he also stated that there was blood down the driver's side door with the door partly open and Billings
00:51:04
hanging through the window also stating that Billings was shot with a 38 caliber
00:51:10
weapon three times in the head and once in the neck and no gun or guns were recovered ever that matched to this
00:51:18
crime now we said that the prosecutor in our opinion failed to paint a picture for the jury as to what may have taken
00:51:26
place what led to Brandon having been killed that night well in contrast to that we have the defense who is going to
00:51:34
start to paint a picture of what if for the jury and this starts with him saying
00:51:40
that the way that the truck was planted in the creek the passenger side door was
00:51:45
blocked by a tree preventing it from being opened and he asked the jury was someone inside the truck pushing their
00:51:53
way out the driver's side door had blood on it pressed against it as if someone was pulling someone out of the cab on
00:52:02
the driver's side they also pointed out that test that DNA from Brandon Billings
00:52:10
girlfriend was found in his pockets on his pants okay and that The Rock House area
00:52:19
is known as a quote unquote Lovers Lane but we we have surveillance at the um we
00:52:25
have surveillance and eyewitnesses at the convenience store and nobody ever claims that they saw her nobody claims
00:52:32
to have seen Brandon with anybody leaving that convenience store right and so he points out the question you know
00:52:38
is this really my defendant a case of killing the wrong guy or is this a lover who is jealous I
00:52:49
don't know he also pointed out the defense also pointed out that there was DNA found at the crime scene of a second
00:52:56
unidentifiable person so just there there's a lot more going on here than in my opinion there's
00:53:05
more questions here brought up at trial than there are answers presented at trial basically we come full circle to
00:53:12
basically say we know nothing yeah well it the the jury they deliberated for 4 hours after the trial was over the trial
00:53:19
only took three days yeah it's probably not a good sign when the trial only takes three days BAS basically they
00:53:26
called about 10 Witnesses and only one that being Tammy Simone well I mean you could debate it
00:53:34
you could debate it but it looks as as far as Reeves goes he's the guy on trial we talked a lot about Harper but Reeves
00:53:41
is actually the guy on trial and other than Tammy none of these 10 Witnesses make any connection between this suspect
00:53:48
and Brandon Billings they deliberated for 4 hours and Reeves was found not guilty now now he he will not be
00:53:57
released he will not go free he will actually return to federal prison because he was serving a 15year sentence
00:54:03
at the time for drug trafficking charges from back in 2005 the weird thing here though is we
00:54:09
do have Harper that is called to testify in Reeves's um trial yeah and he was asked were you present the night Brandon
00:54:19
Billings was murdered his answer was I refuse to answer undergrounds that I may incriminate myself he was then asked do
00:54:28
you know who killed Brandon Billings and again refused to answer the question then asked did you kill Brandon Billings
00:54:35
to which Harper replied no sir after the trial of Chad Reeves we have Harper George Albert Harper III he was charged
00:54:46
with perjury because he had to give testimony under oath multiple times sometimes in front of the grand jury
00:54:55
sometimes in front of the jury at this trial the problem is in those situations he was under oath I believe three times
00:55:04
he gave a different story so he perjured himself at least once more likely twice
00:55:12
because having given three stories so to which he ends up pleading he he plead guilty to the perjury charges he's back
00:55:19
in prison on his old charges plus these perjury charges he is the the Mur Mur charges against him for the case of
00:55:27
Brandon Billings has ultimately been dropped the prosecutor is stating though this is not we're not throwing him out
00:55:35
as a suspect the problem is you know Reeves went free we need more evidence yeah we can't
00:55:42
have another three-day trial we we can't bring Harper to trial after this and and
00:55:47
he ends up walking too so there's still looking for the evidence that is needed in this
00:55:52
case do I want answers of course do do I want somebody to be guilty of course do
00:55:56
I want there to be Justice for Brandon and for his family of course the problem is there's nothing that I can look at in
00:56:04
this trial and as far as the evidence goes that points to me that they got the right person or persons right and it
00:56:11
doesn't point that they didn't um it's just it's a matter of finding the truth yeah and as frustrating as it is that
00:56:18
there's no one to hold accountable for this tragic death for this horrible murder there's a there's just nothing
00:56:25
here I mean our system would be completely broken if Reeves would have been found guilty on that
00:56:34
[Music] day we have a recommended reading for this week yes everybody check out the
00:56:46
dominici affair this is an engrossing investigation of the multiple murder of three English tourists in the French
00:56:54
Countryside back in the 1950s written by Martin kitchen he does a great job a fantastic job as he recreates the
00:57:02
Tangled threads of this famous case reconstructing the facts of the triple homicide check out the dominici affair
00:57:09
by Martin kitchen and you can check out all of our recommended books on our website at truecrime garage.com click on
00:57:16
the recommended page thank you guys so much for listening thanks for coming into the garage drinking some beers and
00:57:23
hanging out with us means the world that's right and until next week be good be kind and don't
00:57:29
[Music] [Applause] litter Angie's List is now Angie and we've heard a lot of theories about why I
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a tech thing but those aren't quite right it's because now you can compare upfront prices book a service instantly
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and even get your project handled from start to finish sounds easy it is and it makes us so much more than just a list
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