Bond Denied For Billings Murder Suspects

Florida Murder A judge denied bond for Leonard Gonzalez Jr and Wayne Coldiron two of the seven people arrested for the murder of Byrd and Melanie Billings.

by Jamie Burch

Published: Tue, July 14, 2009 - 2:02 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, July 14, 2009 - 4:23 pm CST

An Escambia County judge denied bond for Leonard Gonzalez Jr and Wayne Coldiron, two of the seven people arrested in the robbery and murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings.

Leonard Gonzalez Jr

During Tuesday's bond hearing, Gonzalez told the judge he's not guilty.

"The state's entire case is based on hearsay, circumstantial evidence and the confession of a mentally challenged person with a long history of making false statements and false confessions," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said he and his wife run a non-profit agency called Project FIGHTBACK. The self defense group teaches free abduction awareness and kidnap prevention techniques to children and self defense/rape awareness classes to women.

"From the very beginning, the investigators and Sheriff have focused their sights both entirely on me, even pushing me into the media before evidence was even gathered," Gonzalez said.

He shook his head while the judge read the charges.

"I am not guilty of the crimes of which I am being charged," Gonzalez said.

Sheriff David Morgan said Gonzalez was the ringleader of the robbery/home invasion of the Billings home in Beulah. The Billings were well known for adopting special need children.

Wayne Coldiron

Coldiron told the judge is a "plumber by trade" but was laid off because of the recession.

Coldiron dropped his head in disbelief when the judge announced he was denying bond

The judge appointed both Coldiron and Gonzalez a public defender. Both men are due back in court August 6.

The Sheriff's Office has also arrested Gonzalez's dad, Gary Sumner, Donald Stallworth, Fredrick Thornton and an unidentified 16-year-old. State Attorney Bill Eddins says he plans to charge all seven with capital murder.

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carl Says:

Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 5:43 am

Warming up BIG YELLOW MAMA now as we speak,bringing her back out of moth balls to see if we can make the lights dim on the southern half of the state.It’s really hard to believe these people actually had a mother to care for them as babies.Did nothing,such as love and compassion,rub off from the mothers?

BamaBob Says:

Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 6:18 pm

This is a very tragic story and one of the dumbest sounding crimes I have ever heard about. All these numbnuts train for weeks, carry out a military type operation, in and out within 10 minutes and it is all on video. Were these guys completely stoned out of their gourds?

Who in the world would trust that many people to keep quiet? Who in the world would use such a distinctive vehicle to carry all these jerks to the front door of the crime?

I’ve seen stuff on CSI that is more believable than this grisly homicide. Fry ‘em!