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