Kenneth Billups was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for five murders
According to court documents Kenneth Billups would murder Stevon Lockett and three days later would shoot and kill Rafael Salcedo, 15; Enrique Marquez, 16; Wilbur Gomez, 20; and Manuel Perez Nunez, 27
Kenneth Billups would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Kenneth Billups is incarcerated at Holman Prison
Kenneth Billups Case
The appellant, Kenneth Eugene Billups, was convicted of 13 counts of capital murder in connection with the killings of Wilbur Gomez, Enrique Marquez, Rafael Salcedo, and Manuel Nunez Perez. Counts I–IV charged him with murder made capital because it was committed during a first-degree robbery as to Gomez, Marquez, Salcedo, and Perez, respectively, see § 13A–5–40(a)(2), Ala.Code 1975. Counts V–VIII charged him with murder made capital because it was committed during a first-degree kidnapping as to Gomez, Marquez, Salcedo, and Perez, see § 13A–5–40(a)(1), Ala.Code 1975. Counts IX–XII charged him with murder made capital because it was committed during a first- or second-degree burglary as to Gomez, Marquez, Salcedo, and Perez, respectively, see § 13A–5–40(a)(4), Ala.Code 1975. Finally, Count XIII charged him with murder made capital because he killed Gomez, Marquez, Salcedo, and Perez by one act or pursuant to one scheme or course of conduct, see § 13A–5–40(a)(10), Ala.Code 1975. The jury unanimously recommended that Billups be sentenced to death. The circuit court followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Billups to death. This appeal followed.
The State’s evidence tended to show the following: On December 16, 2003, Osman Valladres telephoned Pablo Stuart, a friend of his, and asked Stuart for a ride to Billups’s house in Center Point. Valladres told Stuart that he had to go to Billups’s house to collect a debt; instead, Valladres intended to purchase marijuana once they were at Billups’s house. Valladres had previously purchased marijuana from Kenneth Billups.
Stuart picked up Valladres at 3:00 p.m. and drove him to Billups’s house. When they arrived, Kenneth Billups was waiting at the front door and directed Stuart to park his car in front of the garage. Stuart wanted to stay outside and wait in the car while Valladres went inside, but Billups persuaded him to come inside the house. Once in the house, Stuart and Valladres were escorted into the kitchen, where they sat at a table facing the wall. Stuart and Valladres saw marijuana and a stack of cash on the kitchen table. Billups and Charles Cooper, who were also seated at the table, began to smoke marijuana. Stuart was offered marijuana, but he declined. A few moments later, Billups’s girlfriend, Catrina Robina, emerged from another part of the house and entered the kitchen from behind Stuart and Valladres. Robina stated that she had “a headache,” while signaling for Cooper to put a gun to Stuart’s head. (R. 704.) Cooper pointed a gun at Stuart’s head and asked him if he had any marijuana. Quinton Parrish, who was also in the house, rushed into the room brandishing a gun equipped with a laser-scope. Kenneth Billups, who was described by both Stuart and Valladres as the “boss” or leader of the group, then pulled out his gun.
After forcing Stuart and Valladres to the floor at gunpoint, Billups and his associates searched Stuart and Valladres for guns. Finding none, Kenneth Billups and his associates bound Stuart and Valladres with duct tape. Parrish stripped Stuart of his wallet, a necklace, a bracelet, and a ring. Finding no drugs on Stuart or Valladres, Billups instructed Valladres to telephone someone who could get them some marijuana and cocaine. Valladres telephoned a drug dealer while they were at Billups’s house.
Stuart and Valladres were taken to the basement garage of Billups’s house where Parrish had moved Stuart’s car. Still bound with duct tape, Stuart and Valladres were forced at gunpoint into Stuart’s car and driven to Valladres’s apartment. Cooper, accompanied by Kenneth Billups, drove Stuart and Valladres to the apartment. Parrish followed behind them in another car.
Once the group was at the apartment, the duct tape was removed from Stuart and Valladres. Billups then ordered Valladres to telephone some “Mexicans” and ask them to get some drugs; Valladres complied with Billups’s order. Approximately one to two hours later, two Hispanic men—Salcedo and Marquez—arrived at the apartment. Billups showed the two men a bag containing some money, telling them it was $70,000. Billups asked the men if they could get 45 pounds of marijuana and 2 kilos of cocaine. Salcedo and Marquez told Billups that they could get only 35 pounds of marijuana. Billups agreed to the exchange, and the men left the apartment. After the men left, Billups ordered pizza to be delivered. Meanwhile, Parrish took some jewelry, clothing, and hair clippers he had found in Valladres’s bedroom.
After waiting several hours and growing impatient, Billups ordered Valladres to telephone “the Mexicans”—i.e., Salcedo and Marquez—to see where they were; Valladres telephoned at least two times. At approximately 11:00 p.m., Salcedo and Marquez returned to the apartment carrying a plastic container full of marijuana, which they placed on the kitchen floor. A third Hispanic man walked into the apartment, prompting Billups to ask if anyone else had accompanied them. When they answered in the affirmative, Billups ordered Stuart to go and call the fourth Hispanic man inside. Once Salcedo, Marquez, and the two other Hispanic men—subsequently identified as Gomez and Perez—were in the apartment, Billups searched all four for weapons. Meanwhile, Stuart and Valladres positioned themselves near the kitchen and living-room doors, respectively.
After Billups inspected the marijuana, gunfire erupted. Billups and Parrish began firing their guns at the four unarmed Hispanic men. The four men pleaded for their lives. Valladres testified that some of the men were shot in the back as they stood up to flee. Billups knelt on the back of one of the victims who was already on the floor and shot him in the back of the head several times. Salcedo, Marquez, Gomez, and Perez were killed. Autopsies performed on the victims’ bodies indicated that all the victims sustained fatal gunshot wounds to the head.
Stuart and Valladres escaped the apartment during the shooting. Stuart ran and hid in the woods while Valladres fled to a friend’s apartment. Billups, Cooper, and Parrish emerged from the apartment, carrying the 35 pounds of marijuana. The three men got into the car driven by Parrish and drove away.
Following the shooting, Cooper’s wife, Tangela, saw Billups with her husband. Tangela testified that Billups had a substantial amount of blood on his shoes. According to Tangela, Billups boasted, “I killed those motherfuckers.” (R. 1634.) Robert Walker, Billups’s cousin, saw Billups shortly after the murders and heard Billups brag: “That shit was like ‘New Jack City.’ ” 2 (R. 1674.) Walker believed Billups meant that the killings were done in a ruthless and cold-hearted manner. In January 2004, Billups was apprehended by United States marshals in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and returned to Jefferson County to stand trial.
The jury found Billups guilty of the capital offenses charged in the indictment. Following the penalty phase of Billups’s trial, see § 13A–5–46, Ala.Code 1975, the jury unanimously recommended that Billups be sentenced to death. A presentence report was then prepared as required by § 13A–5–47, Ala.Code 1975, and the circuit court held a separate sentencing hearing. After hearing testimony, the circuit court sentenced Billups to death. This appeal, which is automatic in a case involving the death penalty, followed. See § 13A–5–53, Ala.Code 1975
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1536635.html
