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Thread: Billy Jim Sheppard, Jr. - Florida

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    Billy Jim Sheppard, Jr. - Florida




    Man on trial for 2 deaths in separate Duval shootings on same morning

    Just after 6 a.m. on July 20, 2008, 39-year-old Patrick Stafford was shot and killed in the front yard of a relative’s home off Kings Road in Jacksonville.

    Less than three hours later, Dorsette James watched as two men stole his gray Ford Crown Victoria and drove away from a convenience store he had visited just a few blocks away.

    By 10:30 a.m., a 16-year-old boy, Monquell Deshaun Wimberly, lay slain on the shoulder of the roadway in the 100 block of Kings Road after another shooting.

    That’s the timeline Assistant State Attorney Mark Caliel laid out for jurors Tuesday as he pointed out the man who he said was a culprit in all three crimes that deadly Sunday morning.

    Billy Jim Sheppard, 25, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a felon and grand theft auto. If convicted of first-degree murder, he faces the possibility of the death penalty.

    “This is a case of misidentification and the state of Florida has the wrong guy,” said defense attorney Chuck Fletcher during opening statements.

    Fletcher was referring to one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, a security guard at an apartment complex near the Wimberly shooting who placed Sheppard at the murder scene.

    Caliel said the security guard told police she saw someone draw a gun on the teen from the front window of gray Crown Victoria as he rode his bike down the road. She then heard gunfire as she ran in fear.

    After calling 911, she said she returned and saw the face of a man she later identified as Sheppard pass within 10 feet of her, Caliel said, looking back at Wimberly as the car drove away.

    “She had never seen him before but will never forget his face,” Caliel said. “… She knows she had looked face-to-face with a killer.”

    The woman later identified Sheppard to detectives in a photo spread. But it was her previous identification of another man that the defense said discredits her account.

    But Caliel told jurors that detectives had simply misinterpreted the security guard in the initial photo spread. He explained that what she meant was that the man she first fingered simply fit Sheppard’s description at the time, having dreads and full lips.

    Adding to the security guard’s account is a web of physical evidence that Caliel said links all three crimes and ties in Sheppard’s co-defendant, Rashard Antwan Evans, 23.

    Aside from their proximity, police first linked the two slayings when they found 9-milimeter shell casings at both crime scenes.

    Forensic testing later revealed that most of the bullets taken from the two shootings were fired from the same gun, the prosecutor said. The presence of bullets that did not match up in the Stafford slaying suggests a second shooter.

    Evans’ arrest reports said his fingerprints were eventually found inside the stolen Crown Victoria. Caliel added that both defendants were recorded in a video from inside the convenience store just before the car was taken.

    Evans is set for trial in all three crimes later this month.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...#ixzz1j6hBVJW0

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    Jacksonville man guilty of seperate killings in one morning

    Two Jacksonville families forever joined by a wave of violence on a Sunday morning in July 2008 had waited more than three years to finally hear one word that finally came Thursday: Guilty.

    After five and a half hours of deliberating, a jury found Billy Jim Sheppard, 25, guilty in two fatal shootings and stealing a car in a four-hour stretch.

    He now faces the possibility of the death penalty, convicted of two counts of first-degree murder.

    “This has been a very long haul for the family members in this case,” said Assistant State Attorney Mark Caliel.

    Left in Sheppard and his accused co-defendant's path was 39-year-old Patrick Stafford and 16-year-old Monquell Deshaun Wimberly, gunned down just blocks from each other in a West Jacksonville neighborhood.

    Stafford was found slain in a relative's front yard in the 1600 block of Academy Street soon after gunfire was heard shortly after 6 a.m. on July 20, 2008.

    Just after 10 a.m., Wimberly was killed as he rode his bike on the 100 block of Kings Road, on his way to meet his family to go to church, they said.

    Tying much of the state's case and the accused together was a gray Ford Crown Victoria stolen at a convenience store at the corner of Beaver and Tyler streets, where its owner had visited during the four hours between the shootings.

    A witness testified that he saw Sheppard and co-defendant Rashard Antwan Evans, 23, get in the car and speed away.

    Video from the store also showed both Sheppard and Evans inside the store minutes before the vehicle was jacked.

    Fingerprints found in the car were later matched to Evans.

    Accounts from three witnesses later placed a car matching the Crown Victoria's description at the scene of the Wimberly shooting.

    One witness, a security guard at an apartment complex outside of which Wimberly was shot, identified Sheppard as the man whose face she saw pass within feet of her, hanging out of the passenger window of the stolen car, looking back at the dying teen.

    “This was a very difficult case in the sense that it had to be pieced together by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office,” Caliel said.

    The prosecution also called an inmate who shared a jail cell with Sheppard for three months.

    Michael Roberts, 41, gave jurors details of the three crimes, which he said Sheppard shared with him. He said the defendant also tried to enlist him to kill the security guard witness to prevent her from testifying.

    “He [Sheppard] was asking me ‘I need you to do me a favor. I need you to take care of that lady,’  ” Roberts said.

    He testified that Sheppard offered him nearly $10,000 to eliminate the witness with money from the co-defendants’ income tax return checks, for which Roberts said he helped them fill out the returns, as he did for several inmates.

    Defense attorney Chuck Fletcher called Roberts a liar who, as a career criminal, likely obtained those details from Sheppard's case paperwork

    In a twist, 11 months after Roberts was released from jail in December 2009, 20 Duval inmates were charged with filing faulty tax returns.

    A nine-time felon, Roberts faces up to 30 years in prison as a habitual offender on burglary and grand theft charges in Nassau County.

    Sheppard will return to court this month when the jury makes its recommendation to Circuit Judge Brad Stetson for a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...#ixzz1jKdpFaLL

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    Jury recommends death for Jacksonville killer of 2 in one morning

    Dressed in red and appearing nervous and emotional, Monique Hodge's demeanor briefly brightened as her smile mirrored the puffy-cheeked grin of her slain son in an image displayed on a courtroom projector screen.

    Then she lightly spoke about 16-year-old Monquell Deshaun Wimberly, who she lost when he was shot down on his bicycle as he rode to meet his family for church July 20, 2008.

    “We used to talk about him getting his driver's license and us traveling around the world together,” she said. “... I miss watching him sleep and all the other things I took for granted.”

    Hodge's words were taken into consideration by jurors Friday before they recommended that the Jacksonville man convicted in her son's murder be sentenced to death.

    The jury also recommended that Billy Jim Sheppard Jr. be sentenced to life in prison for the killing of 39-year-old Patrick Stafford, which occurred just about four hours before the Wimberly slaying.

    Sheppard was found guilty Jan. 10 of both murders and stealing a car during that violent morning.

    His attorneys presented seven witnesses, family and friends, who spoke in his behalf. They talked about Sheppard's turbulent upbringing, which included his time spent in prison from a 2001 conviction in the shooting of a fellow teen during a dispute outside The Jacksonville Landing. Fourteen at the time, he served four years in prison and then another 18 months after violating his probation.

    Defense attorney Julie Schlax emphasized that Sheppard has spent almost all of his life after that conviction in jail and said that he actually has the real-world mental capacity of a 15-year-old.

    “How shall we punish a man who is psychologically15 years old and has been around guns his entire life?” she asked the jury.

    Assistant State Attorney Mark Caliel noted that many people face such challenges but do not choose to live a criminal lifestyle.

    “That [wrongdoing] was the choice he made,” Caliel said. “That [incarceration] was the consequence of his actions … He could have lived a productive life.”

    Following the proceedings, Sheppard's cousin, Chiquita Adams expressed sympathy for the families of the victims but questioned the possible imposition of the death penalty.

    “Our heart goes out to the families of the victims,” Adams said. “But I don't feel like taking his life for something he didn't do is good. It just sends another family into mourning.”

    Sheppard is scheduled to return to court next month for one final plea of leniency to Circuit Judge Brad Stetson.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...#ixzz1k66BSZux

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    Jacksonville man sentenced to death in one shooting, life in prison in another

    A Jacksonville man convicted of two separate murders committed in four hours was sentenced Friday to the death penalty on one killing and life in prison in the other.

    The jury convicted Billy Jim Sheppard of first-degree murder in the June 2008 shootings of 16-year-old Monquell Deshaun Wimberly and 39-year-old Patrick Stafford, slain just blocks from each other in West Jacksonville.

    The jury recommended death in the Wimberly killing in which Sheppard was identified as the shooter by a witness who said she saw him stick his head out of the window of the getaway car as it fled, making sure of his work.

    They then recommended life in prison in the Stafford slaying, finding that the murder was committed during the commission of a felony — attempted armed robbery — but did not find premeditation.

    Circuit Judge Brad Stetson followed the jury's recommendations. Stetson also sentenced Sheppard to life in prison for his attempted armed robbery charge, 15 years for possession of a firearm by a felon and five years for grand theft auto in a carjacking that also occurred the morning of the murders.

    http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2...#ixzz1qgq5lWlJ
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  5. #5
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    DC Number:................J18546
    Name:.......................SHEPPARD, BILLY J JR
    Race:........................BLACK
    Sex:..........................MALE
    Hair Color:..................BLACK
    Eye Color:..................BROWN
    Height:......................'''
    Weight:.....................lbs.
    Birth Date:.................08/18/1986
    Initial Receipt Date:.....04/02/2012
    Current Facility:..........FLORIDA STATE PRISON
    Current Custody:.........MAXIMUM
    Current Release Date:..DEATH SENTENCE

    http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveInma...onID=504264510

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    BILLY JIM SHEPPARD, JR., v STATE OF FLORIDA

    In today's Florida Supreme Court orders, the court AFFIRMED Sheppard's two judgments of conviction of first-degree murder and a sentence of death on direct appeal.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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    Florida Supreme Court affirms Jacksonville murderer's death penalty; 2 were killed within hours

    By Andrew Pantai
    The Mayport Mirror

    Billy Jim Sheppard Jr. deserves his death sentence, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

    Sheppard killed 39-year-old Patrick Stafford on a humid summer day in 2008 in Jacksonville. Stafford had been sleeping in a car. Sheppard was 21 then. Police found six shell casings near the body.

    Then Sheppard and his partner, 20-year-old Rashard Antwan Evans, hijacked a car at gunpoint.

    Then Sheppard killed Monquell Wimberly, 16. Police found six more shell casings near his body.

    Wimberly was riding his bicycle before church.

    While Sheppard waited for trial in jail, he asked an inmate for a favor: Could he kill the only witness? he asked, according to inmate Michael Roberts.

    Roberts said Sheppard was part of a Paxon-area gang — PYC. Wimberly was from the Westside. He and Sheppard argued a few days before Wimberly’s death.

    Sheppard shot Stafford because Stafford wouldn’t give up the car he was sleeping in, Roberts said.

    In his appeal to the state Supreme Court, Sheppard argued the prosecution used hearsay — Evans’ girlfriend testified that Evans told her to send a message to Sheppard about a “package,” Sheppard told her it referred to a gun.

    He also argued that an interrogation video with police made it sound like police could prove claims made in the interrogation.

    Sheppard said it was wrong for a witness to talk about how she was afraid he would come after her.

    Sheppard also said the jury was influenced. One juror accused another of announcing a guilty verdict to him before the trial ended. She was excused from the case, but Sheppard argued she might have shared her verdict with more jurors.

    Sheppard said he doesn’t deserve death. The jury sentenced him to death, he said, because he was convicted for shooting someone when he was 14. That, he argued, wasn’t enough.

    Evans meanwhile is serving 20 years for manslaughter.

    The Supreme Court disagreed with Sheppard on every claim. He had killed two people within hours, and he’d been violent before. That, the court decided, deserved death.

    Mark Caliel, who prosecuted the case, called it a particularly wicked case. He said he was glad the state Supreme Court upheld the death penalty.

    He said if Sheppard hadn’t received leniency as a minor — not facing 25 years of prison time for shooting someone — then “he would not have been free to commit this crime spree.”

    “It is something to reflect upon, especially when there is a great deal of debate out there about what do you do with young juvenile offenders,” Caliel said. “Perhaps we should not have been so lenient, but it’s real easy to say that looking through the lens of what did he do after the fact. … Perhaps not every 14-, 15-, 16-year-old is not worthy of rehabilitation.”

    Sheppard had been prosecuted as an adult and was sentenced to four years in prison, but he violated probation and was sentenced to another year and a half, court records show.

    After he came back from prison as a teenager, he lived with his sister, but she said prison changed him.

    “He was different and would barricade himself in the bedroom and sleep a lot,” the Supreme Court opinion said. “… He lost his easygoing spirit.”

    http://mayportmirror.jacksonville.co...#ixzz3CWPxOrKN

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    In today's orders, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Sheppard's petition for certiorari.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Florida
    Case Nos.: (SC12-890)
    Decision Date: September 4, 2014
    Rehearing Denied: November 25, 2014
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    On April 25, 2016, Sheppard filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    https://dockets.justia.com/docket/fl...cv00495/322739

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    Petition for writ of habeas corpus denied by the Florida Supreme Court.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/florida...sc19-1512.html
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