Police have arrested a man wanted in connection with the brutal killing of Baltimore tech CEO Pava LaPere and a separate, near-fatal attack and rape less than a week earlier, authorities said.
Jason Dean Billingsley, 32, was arrested at a train station in Bowie, Maryland, northeast of Washington, DC, around 11 p.m. on Wednesday. The Baltimore Banner reportedciting U.S. Marshals, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Baltimore police said they plan to release more information about the arrest at a news conference scheduled for later Thursday morning.
Billingsley’s arrest came a day after Baltimore police named him as a suspect in the murder of LaPere, who was found dead of blunt force injuries in her apartment building late Monday morning. A suspected motive for the attack has not been revealed.
Then on Wednesday, police announced it was Billingsley additionally sought in an earlier attempted murder, arson and rape committed at a home on Sept. 19, six days before LaPere’s body was discovered.
Police said evidence collected during that earlier investigation linked Billingsley to LaPere’s death.
In this earlier attack it was a man and a woman Reportedly critically injuredand a five-year-old was treated for smoke inhalation after a fire was started in their home.
The couple were allegedly ambushed by an armed man who posed as a maintenance worker, kicked in the front door and then handcuffed them and bound them with duct tape. The Baltimore Banner reportedciting a source with knowledge of the investigation.
The woman was allegedly raped and her neck was slit. She and the man were then doused with a liquid and set on fire, the Banner reported.
Billingsley was released on parole last October after serving several years of a 30-year sentence – with all but 14 years suspended – for a first-degree sex offense he pleaded guilty to in 2015. He had separately pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in 2009 and second-degree assault in 2011, The Baltimore Banner reported. Billingsley is listed on the Maryland sex offender registry.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Billingsley should never have been released from prison.
“He definitely shouldn’t have been on the street,” the mayor said at a press conference on Tuesday. “We are tired of talking about the same people committing the same crimes over and over again.”