Billings Murder: Crime Spree Connection

Florida Pensacola Two men charged in the calculated murders of a Florida panhandle couple may have gotten away with a crime spree a few years earlier.

by Jessica Taloney

Published: Thu, August 20, 2009 - 4:34 pm CST

Two men charged in the calculated murders of a Florida panhandle couple may also be tied to a rash of unsolved home invasions and another murder.

According to newly released documents in the Billings murder investigation, Donnie Stallworth, 28, and Gary Sumner, 30, "have possibly been involved in other criminal activity." The document, a request from investigators in the Florida state attorney's office to the U.S. Air Force to obtain Stallworth's military record, says the Air Force Staff Sergeant and Sumner may specifically be linked to robberies in the Fort Walton Beach area dating back to 2005.

Investigators say the home invasion robberies appeared to target drug dealers who kept large amounts of cash. Many of the robberies went unreported, but witnesses describe the suspects as at least two black men wearing dark clothes and ski masks.

The document also discusses a murder on September 12, 2005. Luis Magana-Gonzalex, a Mexican national, was shot to death inside his apartment on Monahan Drive in Fort Walton Beach. Before he died, the document says he identified two black males as his killers.

Investigators found a Taurus 9mm handgun dropped by one of the killers and discovered DNA and partial fingerprints, but no suspects were identified through analysis.

A spokesperson for the Okaloosa County sheriff's office confirmed the cases are still open, but investigators would not discuss new leads.

Stallworth, Sumner and five other men are charged with killing Byrd and Melanie Billings July 9th during a home invasion in their Beulah, Florida home.

All seven suspects are in jail.

An eighth suspect, Pamela Long-Wiggins, is charged as an accessory after the crime. She is in jail on a $500,000 bond.

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says detectives expect to make more arrests in the Billings murder. Pamela Wiggins' husband, Hugh Wiggins, was identified this week as a person of interest.

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