Brandon Billings /// Part 2 /// 159 | Forensic Files

[Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that gets more done before midnight than most do
in a day he is the captain that's cause I'm a real Gilpin it's good to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for
listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] tonight we are drinking Blue Mountain
breweries classic lager by the good people at Blue Mountain Brewery and beautiful Virginia garage grade four out
of five bottle caps if you are looking for a crisp clear lightly hopped lager than this baby is for you and this
fantastic beer was brought to us by first up we have Jesse and Nick in Norwell Massachusetts sending yourself a
beer IC next we have Jen and Rick in Jacksonville Florida also in Florida a shout out to belkey and Homestead Balki
Balki that's what I do when I drink too much beer I Balki and a big shout out to
Chris with a z and Cali oh and why we're in Cali let's say hello to Allison from
Santa Cruz who says keep it radical and keep it safe keep it radical man and a big we like yojib it's a Mary in
Littleton Colorado and you know what we're under a lot of pressure to release a jib I like your jib shirt I like to
cut it yet so if anybody out there fancies themself him or herself an artist and you know how to draw a jib
send them our way so we can so we can get the monkey the jib monkey off our back already yeah you can send that to
Nick at true crime garage.com or to the captain at True Crime garage and one more shout out last but not least
actually how about just last because this is from Aaron in Fort Meade Maryland who says keep up the excellent
work Captain Nick not so much so I think it's a smart bet that somewheres in Fort Meade Aaron is
running around wearing a team captain shirt to which I say take it off and burn it come to the dark side thank you
to everybody except for Aaron for filling up the fridge for this week's show and if you want to buy us around
for next week's show go to True Crime garage.com and click on the Donate button alright that's enough of the
business grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] [ __ ] [Music]
ing Brandon Billings had been found dead in his pickup truck he had been shot to
death and he was found around 2 30 p.m on October 6 2002 just a day after his 18th birthday the young man was not
known to have any enemies at all nor thought to be involved in any criminal activity
Brandon's parents Kyle and Sherry Billings still found themselves listening for the sound of Brandon's
pickup truck pulling in the driveway even a month or so after his death yeah there was something too where the the
mother would be asleep and that should be coming out of the sleep she would think that she heard him talking yeah
her his parents had said that it would have been easier if their son had died in a car accident or from something like
cancer that at least would be understandable something that they could understand what they could not
understand is why somebody would kill Brandon Sherry said whoever did this as a coward
to shoot him from behind a coward then in a coward now not brave enough to admit what they have done she and Kyle
always believed that the killer was someone Brandon knew although not very well they worried that the killer might
be somebody that they had seen since the slaying in the store or maybe on the street someone that they had seen in
person maybe up to like 20 times they stated that Brandon was the type of person that would walk away from any
type of trouble and he was nothing but a big gentle giant that did not deserve to
die yeah but sometimes you can't walk away sometimes the fight comes to you and you have to defend yourself well and
that leaves us with a lot of questions as to why Brandon was in the area where he was found who would have came after
him if he had no enemies when you look at this from everything I can tell from people he went to school with from his
family and friends from people that lived in the area there seemed no reason for him to be in any type of altercation
that would have led to his death would have led to him being found shot to death in his vehicle yeah but what were
his I mean do we have anybody that he was friends with that have any explanation why he was out that late or
where possibly he was heading to we we have no information regarding that and that's what's so confusing here with
this case uh why was he not heading home why was he by himself at 3 40 in the morning why was the seat belt cut why
was the shirt placed above his head six months after Brandon's death police still had no motive and no suspect the
reward fund had grown to nearly 14 000 dollars remind remind you this was one that friends and family had to put
together themselves they had to fundraise for this reward fund the week before the senior class photo at
Brandon's High School Brandon's parents held a brief meeting with the senior class to thank them for being friends in
both life and death with Brandon the family gave thank you cards and senior photos of Brandon to each member of the
graduating class and all of his football teammates each card contained a short message inside from the family that said
a kind word for everyone a stranger never met always a friendly handshake on that you could bet from the gentle giant
Brandon Billings number 79 thank you for being a friend to Brandon love the Billings family and Brandon's mother
Sherry gave a speech at this event and I'll pass along some of her words she said that our Brandon should be here
among all of you but due to someone who didn't think his life was worth living he won't be here with us please be
careful and know who your dearest friends are because Brandon's killer could have been someone he knew very
well so we have the star of the investigation and we have the autopsy but where do we go from here well this
point leads us to about the one year anniversary of Brandon's death and at this point in the investigation Captain
the police said on record that they have about three or four individuals that they were quote unquote looking at the
police were convinced that all it would take to solve this crime is for one person to come forward one person to say
the right thing more than that more than hard evidence that would be what would Crack the Case when you hear the police
say that yeah they're looking for a tip and they might have three or four individuals that they are quote unquote
looking at that to me means that they got some people that they are that are on their radar that they've not ruled
out but they also don't they don't have anything right right that's why basically it's a lot of words saying we
have nothing please someone call and give us the information that we need thankfully the family and friends were
the ones that were able to get together and put together this reward money to maybe drum up somebody's like you said
you know you you're dirt bag if you need money to call in the tip but some people
sometimes that happens five years later we're winning we're gonna have to keep fast forward we're
gonna have to fast forward to move along the DeLorean because there's a lot to cover here but five years later in
October of 2007 the sheriff said the case was not a dead issue that they work on the case of Brandon Billings all the
time in fact he says at this time on the five-year anniversary we have one investigator that is currently running
down a tip right now every call that comes through in every tip that has been called in we run and we work it very
hard to the end well the Billings family held an event at a at a local park there and Brandon's
mom Sherry called this her son's birthday in heaven celebration this of course was a very nice to do but
the other thing here is the Billings family is also using this moment to point out some things that have bothered
them regarding the investigation into their son's death okay and the years since Brandon's death his parents hoped
that the case would be solved you know where their Hope was had now turned to frustration with the sheriff's
department and its handling of the investigation at the event Sherry pointed out that she would endorse the
man running against the current sheriff in the upcoming election talking to the local newspaper Sherry was quick to
point out her endorsement and talking to the crowd there she said something's not
right folks we have to suffer it every day maybe because of mistakes that the sheriff's department has made responding
to this the sheriff told the local media that his Department had investigated The
Killing to the best of its ability pointing out that they had two investigators all of the Sheriff's Office Three
Special Agents from the state police and all agencies in surrounding cities and counties assisting in the case early on
so there was no shortage of people working this case as far as the sheriff's concerned right but then the
rumor Mills start in this small town because you have no leads basically you have a sheriff's department that you
feel is inadequate or or why aren't they solving this and this is kind of when this small town starts talking about the
conspiracy of maybe Brandon stumbled upon something he wasn't supposed to and maybe this was uh done by the hands of
the law well Sherry Billings felt that the FBI should have been called in to help with the case uh in response to
this the sheriff stated that the FBI does not investigate murders he talked to them and they did offer any
assistance in lab work and things like that now in November of 2007 after the election there was a new sheriff in town
and along with that the new position that he inherited he also inherited the Brandon Billings murder investigation
well now there's a new sheriff in town so what's he going to do with it well you know what the other thing I want to
point out here too Captain is that there's a new sheriff in town is you know what what happens with these
parents when when their son or daughter is taken from them or killed and they're
and the case is not solved they get interviewed by the you know the newspapers come calling the the local
news media comes calling around the anniversary every year and wants to get their reaction to why the case isn't
solved how do you feel about this you know your your poor son your poor daughter and then we have these poor
people the Billings family that have to relive this with these phone calls but they also have the added
the added anguish of they have their son's birthday and then the following day is the anniversary of his death and
that you know that's got to hit them extremely hard every fall every year well yeah not to mention
all the football games before that you're going to think about your son you know I don't know if there's any weight
to The Conspiracy Theory here yeah I I don't really I couldn't get any information as to how that tied in I
really feel like it's just a rumor situation where we just have a situation where because there was no leads
uh because there doesn't the investigation seems to be going nowhere that you're almost left with that
conclusion at some point well one of the things that we talked about was his seat
belt was cut never seen that ever before in a crime that I know of right person seat belt being cut like that doesn't
make a lot of sense at all but then we brought up a point that the EMT was there first well let's think about this
and you bring up a good point because like you and I discussed with the seat belt and the confusing way that the
crime scene itself is described to us in media reports there's a couple things that I'm thinking of here one we we may
have a situation where like you said the EMT could have cut that seat belt from Brandon you always have a situation and
we know that the officer said that when he arrived the first responding officer said that when he got there the EMT was
already there right we also see where later evidence possible evidence is trampled over with with the footprint
near the vehicle right which is suspicious yeah so makes you wonder hey did EMT cut that seat belt and it
actually has nothing to do with the crime itself it just wasn't reported back to the the police officers right
though the other thing that I want to think about too is if you don't have any leads and you can't find the murder
weapon you have to hold a lot of that stuff at the crime scene secret to yourself you have to hold that
to yourself because there might be things about specific details about that crime scene that may be only the killer
would know and some of those things already came out in the media we know that the wallet was missing we know that
the ID was thrown in the water those things are already out so that's why I think we have this other information
that's kind of reported loosey-goosey in a way that they might be holding some of
that information back because I think what probably happened is that the EMT arriving first on the scene may
have thought that they were arriving at a car accident there's some kind of car fatality and they get there and they
learn very quickly that that is not the case we also have the strange mention of
his of his shirt of Brandon's shirt being pulled up over his head yeah that also seems strange because we have two
witnesses that arrived or one who found the body and another officer who's one of the first people on the scene saying
that I saw what looked to be bullet gunshots bullet wounds in behind the ear right
but you could have the shirt over just his face and then I'd wonder you know as far as uh Ricky Stewart goes like did
did he happen to pull the shirt over his face for whatever reason like because you know that he passed on I I don't
know like it just seems a little sketchy to me well here's here's the thing the rumor
mill was going so rampant that in 2008 it made the papers to the point where they had to interview the Commonwealth
Attorney the Grayson Commonwealth Attorney because there was rumors going around
that they had finally had a person of interest in the case that had been named a person of interest in the Cold Case
right but six years later they addressed the rumors stating that the investigation into Brandon Billings
murder is continuing although no Persons of Interest have been identified both the Commonwealth attorney's office and
the Sheriff's Office continue to extend their support to the Billings family I'm
going to jump ahead two more years here Captain this takes us to 2010. where so far there's been no suspects or
Persons of Interest named in the Brandon Billings case no one has been arrested obviously well there seems to be almost
no movement on this thing at all for many years well we finally are you ready here are you ready for a break in the
case Captain yeah because I can understand what Brandon's parents are are going through I can
understand their frustration with the investigation well hold on to your buns because we are
going to get a big break finally in this case okay so in 2010 2010 a former living girlfriend of a man
named Chad Allen Reeves comes forward and she is accusing him of having killed Brandon Billings or been involved in the
killing of Brandon Billings yeah but we've seen this before right with the ex-girlfriends coming out
ex-girlfriends of a criminal and then they Implement them in a case that maybe they're not involved in
okay do you want to hear how this goes down yeah that's why I'm here all right he's
very dismissive very dismissive yeah well we've heard this before I didn't mean to okay the X this is Tammy Simone
uh she provided the break the implicated Reeves in the case she described for investigators what Reeves told her in
the hours after Billings was killed on October 6 2002. Tammy Simone is a single mom with a small child back in 2002 and
both of them were living with Reeves at the time she said that she was awakened by Reeves at about 5 a.m that day Reeves
told Tammy to go downstairs and then he told her to count what she says is a large sum of cash that Reeves had laid
out on the kitchen table Tammy a large sum of cash according to Sammy Reeves or I'm sorry Tammy Simone Tammy
says that Reeves was uh sweating quite a bit and he was obviously nervous uh saying that he kept saying oh my God
oh my God oh my God she knew something was obviously wrong however Reeves did not say anything other than oh my God
and pacing the floor okay he did this for quite some time it sounds like maybe as long as an hour
um then later that day he offered up some more information to Tammy and he told her quote I [ __ ] up my boys
[ __ ] up oh he said they well he actually said quote we killed the wrong person it should have been Brian Hill
Tammy Simone apparently she left Reeves they split up in 2004 but she did not come forward to investigators with this
story until 2010 six years later I understand that she has a child to protect but you have Humanity to protect
as well okay so let's get this straight so we have uh Reeves comes back he has a
large sum of money he's oh my God oh my God oh my God right and then the colonel cussed on the show
I was quoting uh this man Reeves those are not my words but it okay so let's let's clear this up a little bit so what
do we know about this Reeves character he was a known drug dealer and actually there are police and investigators in
the area that actually say he was a very good drug dealer meaning he could move drugs and he didn't get caught doing it
right um or he was hard to catch doing it we should say Tammy the living girlfriend
she often would count money for him uh I don't know what the the sum of money was the amount of the money was
right but he would often have her count out the money for some reason I've no clue what that involves well I just
wanted to know because like for some people a large sum of money is 200 dollars you know and it could have been
200 ones now that's a lot of counting right uh but or was it thousands of dollars and I think that makes a
difference because he is stating we killed the wrong guy okay so so okay it you know implying that
they killed Brandon but then he was supposed to kill this other guy well why was he supposed to kill the other guy
you know I'm I'm kind of reading between the lines here and and looking at this but
um so this Brian Hill there there's actually there was no further information reported on why Brian Hill's
name came up in the case or why Reeves and his boys wanted to kill Brian Hill um
my guess is that it would have been money or drug related right right it sounds to me like Reeves was running
some kind of drug ring that he had people working and selling and moving drugs for him yeah according to Tammy
I'm guessing that you know when when the police and when investigators say that you're a good drug dealer I'm guessing
we're not talking about he was coming home with 50 or 200 or 300 right I'm guessing when he came home with money
for Tammy to count it was like she said quote a large sum of money it appears with his words the reason why I bring
that up though is because you know we shouldn't assume that this money came from Brandon there would be
no I'm actually guessing the money didn't come from right right that's what I'm trying to be clear about and he
here's my thoughts okay so when when he says my boys screwed up it sounds to me like
like his dudes just got the wrong guy yeah that somehow they just attacked the wrong dude mistaken identity or Brandon
was in the happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time I don't know the answer to that to paint this picture
better that at some point they either see him at the convenience store or they see this truck and they go that's the
guy and they might have mistaken the truck I think that that I think you're on to something there right and then we
have this uh some kind of evidence that the truck wrecks there's some kind of wreckage right how did that happen and
but but at what point did you know it's the wrong guy because at some point somebody's shooting him from six to 12
inches away yeah so I don't know but but the the picture is becoming clearer here well and it
actually makes a little bit of sense too because when we when we were looking into this in the beginning
I kept wondering why the hell is this case so hard to solve we should be able to come up with with some kind at least
have a suspect you know they one of the questions that people ask all the time is you know if you're going to get if
you're going to murder somebody right I've heard this on other uh murder podcast right they sit around talk about
how no but it's just you know it's the question that you know when you start looking into these cases over and over
how would you go about it where you wouldn't get caught and one of the things is always
well you pick somebody you don't know well of course there's no connection to so you know Brandon might have known
about these guys but I don't think he knew knew these guys well that would be a situation where you're just murdering
for fun but let's say sorry about that well I hope nobody's murdering for fun right but you're you're asking the
hypothetical question how would you kill someone and get away with it well you pick someone that you don't know and if
you don't know the person that means you have no other reason but you want to kill somebody just to kill somebody
right but what I'm saying makes this case so much more difficult is because maybe Brandon didn't know Chad and maybe
Chad didn't know Brandon well and that's what makes sense about this whole scenario because we we you know as you
stated as we all know stranger on Stranger crimes are a million times harder to solve than if it's somebody on
your inner circle it makes sense why this case went cold and why they just don't seem to have anything
[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] we're back cheers everybody so Captain the Brandon Billings murder is a Cold
Case no more my friend right in 2013 11 years of investigating law enforcement agencies have narrowed down the evidence
enough to indict two suspects in connection with the 2002 death of the Galax high school student Brandon
Billings the sheriff says that two men were charged with killing Brandon and they were suspects early on the men were
charged with the murder after other suspects were eliminated and new evidence came forward the murder
suspects are George Albert Harper III he is 40 years old in 2013 and Chad Allen Reeves who is 33 in 2013. right the oh
my God oh my God oh my God guy Sheriff Richard Vaughn said that there were a number of suspects in the initial
suspect pool and it was their job to follow up on leads and eliminate suspects until they were left with just
these two the sheriff could not elaborate as to how many other suspects were eliminated now Vaughn took the
investigation over as a cold case in 2008 from the former Sheriff this is Jerry Wilson who whose work was
commended Vaughn said we appreciate what Sherry what Sheriff Jerry Wilson in the
previous administration had done on the case we picked it up where they had left
off spent thousands of hours on that and we were able to gain additional information
the media questioned him about the two suspects that were arrested Reeves and Harper having been looked at early in
the investigation to which the sheriff replied in 80 percent of cold cases the killer's name is already in the incident
report over time we were able to build the case and work with the Commonwealth's Attorney and an
investigative grand jury and we were able to get enough to issue indictments one it probably helps that Reeves
ex-girlfriend came forward finally and and basically said hey he confessed to this crime
and at this time once these indictments were issued no further information about
the case itself including motive or evidence was released at that time and as usual and rightfully so when arrests
are made we should not expect much information to come out before the trial so at this time just to be clear so at
this time Reeves was in federal prison in Kentucky so the state charges will not be tried until the completion of his
Federal sentence and then we have Harper who was already in custody as well he was in the Virginia Department of
Corrections at the time of the two being charged with murder it was uncertain as
to when Harper's murder trial would take place let's go ahead and get to the trial right Captain so we have Reeves
who's going to go on trial first the prosecution opened up the trial so early on early testimony showed that Reeves
and Harper were both drug dealers although no direct connection between the two defendants was established early
in the trial the prosecutor this is this is kind of a kick in the gut right here
for everybody well better than kicking the ball the prosecutor stated there's no compelling physical evidence pointing
at Reeves you'll see that none of it points to the defendant but none of it points to anyone else
he also acknowledged that the crime scene photos in the autopsy did not fully explain what had happened
oh you got that right he opened they opened up the trial basically saying there's no evidence directly connecting
the defendant the man that we are trying for this murder we have no evidence directly connecting
him to this murder okay well first of all if there is no direct evidence don't have your opening be that right hey by
the way that's like going into the locker room you know with your football team saying hey guys I'm just going to
let you know there's no way we can win today you know I mean like that's basically
what they said they they basically lost the argument right away hey just to let you know there is no evidence yeah I I
questioned that move too my my thought is that they must have been sitting around for hours going
there's when we once we get done presenting our case the jury's gonna go well there was no evidence directly
connecting this guy so I think they thought maybe their best plan of attack was to point that out and state that you
know what it's not going to point to anybody else either so we need you to make a couple leaps for us connecting
him to the case the problem with that is we have a situation where you have to you have to convict him Beyond
A Reasonable Doubt yeah well maybe don't try the case until you have enough evidence
yeah so let's let's talk about some things that were brought up at the trial um nothing they they basically they
stood up and said we have nothing and then they set down okay well the investigations timeline we were right
Captain suggested that the slang likely occurred soon after Billings had arrived
at the scene where he was found the timeline was based on video showing him having left the Galaxy convenience store
at 3 40 a.m right and then we have Barclay the guy that's camping with his wife hearing the shots at 4am so they
pointed out that there was no there was no possibility of extra time involved right this was one of the lead
investigators Hyatt he also testified about leads that were chased down in the case including identifying and locating
two men seen on video chatting with Brandon Billings while eating at the Galax store I guess these guys were
tracked down to a rodeo in North Carolina they said that they had Departed the store at the same time that
branded Billings said that he was heading home right I guess Billings told them that he was heading home
Hyatt also pointed out that a number of 38 caliber Firearms were sent to the State Crime Lab for analysis but no hits
resulted in the 11 years of investigating this murder case so still nothing right well while we're on the
investigation's timeline I do want to point out that Todd Perkins another investigator he was called
and he was questioned as to how long the drive would be for Brandon Billings to get from the convenience store to the
area where his truck was later found and Todd Perkins stated that if you're traveling going the speed limit with the
expected amount of traffic which would be I would guess would be damn near none at almost four in the morning that it
would have taken Brandon Billings approximately 13 minutes to get to that location so they're they're right to say
that it he would have been attacked shortly after having arrived that's roughly within seven minutes of the time
that shots were fired so let's get to I want to talk about the star witness remember Tammy Simone she's
the ex-girlfriend of Chad Reeves yeah um let's get to I'm going to give you the shortened version of her testimony
she was she was on the stand longer than anybody else during this trial because that's all they had well I guess she
started Living with Chad Reeves when she was 21. this was back in 2001 and we know that she left him in 2004. Simone's
testimony painted a picture of a boyfriend who after she moved in with he spoiled her and he spoiled her son as
well this came with things like new cars vacations lots of gifts Drug Money uh she never suspected her son uh to
have been abused by Chad Reeves never expected any never suspected any abuse however according to Simone Reeves was a
very paranoid and controlling person regarding her behavior including forcing her to take drug tests weekly to make
sure that she was clean and having her followed okay so he sells drugs but he wants to make sure that
she's clean so much that he's gonna have her take a piss test yeah interesting and according to her testimony having
her followed and recorded by others to make sure she wasn't doing anything behind his back
she said that they did the two of them did have some physical altercations she said that Chad Reeves basically
slept all day uh until about three or four in the afternoon he would get up and he would leave in the evening and he
would come home the next morning she said not every day but about 70 percent of the time
Simone related a story of being uh woken up by him early that morning the the morning in question by Reeves
remember he got her out of bed and told her to go down to the kitchen this is where she counted what is being called
in court a fresh stack of cash some skrilla said that he was said that Reeves was more odd than he had ever
been before I love all these uh losers these odd losers that have girlfriends the paranoid guy that's following you
well that's making you pissing a cup and you know it's it's a it's a tough world
for we also have to keep in mind though that you and I are both are a little iffy on
on her story about Reeves being involved am I right in saying that yeah I mean because I mean she has
motive to lie basically so it almost makes you I think if you have to question one thing she's saying you have
to question everything she's saying uh but let's let's get back to that day the day in question the morning in question
she said that Reeves was pacing around the kitchen shaking and he had a hard time breathing she said this went on for
about an hour maybe an hour and a half she said he kept repeating himself throughout that time additionally she
said he stood in the doorway and he said Brandon Billings name over and over again so he knew Brandon well according
to this testimony right if if he didn't know him before Brandon was killed he certainly knew his name after he had
been killed right but we do have evidence that somebody went through his wallet so even if they didn't know him
he could have seen that driver's license and that driver's license could be haunting him and he's sitting there
going but again we're talking about a guy that's named Kyle L Brandon Billings so I think this shows some evidence that
uh Chad would have known who he was because if if if this story is true and he's saying Brandon billions Brandon
Billings you would have to know him enough to know that he goes by Brandon Billings and not Kyle Brandon Billings
right or Tammy having read Brandon's name in the newspaper countless times regarding the cold case you know she
didn't come forward with her story until 2010 eight years after Brandon's death five years after Reeves had went to
prison on drug charges she said that part of this was because she was afraid even though Reeves had
never hurt her son he had told her that if she ever left him he would roll my mom up in carpet carpet douse it with
kerosene lighter on fire and make me watch he said he would make the people I love
disappear like Brandon Billings and even threatened to have her son taken away to
Mexico well the fact that she came out later like I said I don't applaud that because you know if you have information
you need to do the right thing and tell the cops I understand why you would because you
want to protect your family you want to protect your son or your kids and but the fact that she came out so far
later to me that gives her less of a motive to want to stick it to Chad for whatever reason yeah and I guess I don't
so much mind that it's that many years later but but when you're talking about the guy's in prison I mean he's in
prison for years and I understand that he's probably some kind of leader it sounds like he's some kind of leader of
losers um you know but still it's been five years that he's in prison Chad Reeves
leader of losers Tammy says that she stayed with Reeves for a little bit after after that night of him talking
about Brandon Billings uh only leaving him after she graduated from college um after she left him and tried to cut
off contact with Reeves she said that Reeves shot up her car and at some point sent a man to her house
she said see that's that's the reason why it's sending people to your house this is the stuff that sounds scary
yeah and she and should that she called Reeves crying hysterically reminding him
that the car that she had was her only means of transportation for both her and her son
she said that she didn't recall what Reeves reaction was at the time of that phone call but he eventually called
about a week later apologizing and he offered to have the vehicle fixed if she came back
and gotten a relationship with him right at no point in the trial this is kind of
the strange thing here though too at no point in the trial did she did Tammy ever mention the name Brian Hill now
remember we stated that that's in her original in her original report to police yeah that that's who he said that
Reeves said that they were supposed to kill right right right so I'm not certain why
the prosecutor wouldn't at least bring up the person Reeves stated he was in the
intended target of the shooting that ended up killing Brandon Billings right right especially when you have a
situation where you're saying the autopsy report and the crime scene photos don't really explain to the jury
what happened you kind of have to Bob rossit and paint this picture for these people
so let's talk about this happy trees we have what would be the connection to these two suspects and the victim
well we have Patricia Davis she is called to the stand she is Brandon Billings aunt okay she's called to the
stand by the defense which just seems strange but she's asked about George Harper he's the other
suspect he's not on trial here but he's the other suspect in Billings death Patricia Davis recalled an event at
August 2002 called the old Fiddler's convention in Galax where she and Brandon were together
she and Brandon saw his girlfriend at the time Elizabeth Edwards with this George Harper
stating that Brandon was very upset with this and decided to leave the convention
now later in the murder investigation the Sheriff's Office came to her and presented her with a book of pictures of
different people and asked if she had recognized any of them as being the person that was seen with Brandon's
girlfriend at this convention and she picked out this Harper guy she picked out the George Harper guy so if we buy
the girlfriend's story against Chad Reeves then maybe Chad was told by Harper that this was the wrong guy but
actually Harper was targeting Brandon for a reason it's just confusing because there doesn't seem to be much of a
connection between the two suspects and the murder victim and there seems to be even less of a connection between the
two suspects themselves now I understand that they're both known drug dealers yeah but they're both drug users as well
right um I I don't know that just because they're a dealer doesn't mean that they're a user
um so I mean maybe their their connection is not well known it's obviously not well known to the police
or to the prosecutor because that doesn't seem to be presented very well at the trial itself
now we have another woman who's called Jennifer Schaffner is called to the stand and she worked as a home health
care nurse at the time of billing's death one of her patients was George Harper's grandmother and she testified
that through the course of working there that her and George developed a friendship and during this friendship
Harper once told her I didn't do it this is in reference to Brandon's case I didn't do it but if I did this is how I
would have done it and he pulled her shirt up over her head and made a gun with his hand and made a
gun you know with his fingers and his thumb there right and put it behind her ear and said Bam
Bam Bam she said this scared me enough to quit she didn't quit her job but it sounds
like she quit working for Harper's grandmother so Schaffner decided at first not to go
to the Sheriff's office regarding this and why why put that why pull the shirt up that's I don't know that's just what
he did that's just what he did to her he pulled up her shirt stuck his you know fake gun behind her ear and pretended to
be pulling the trigger the problem with this is this Rings true with some of the facts that we know of
the case and how he was found how Brandon was found Schaffner indicated that Harper was
still talking to her even after she no longer had his grandmother as a client talking to her and texting her some okay
this is what I don't understand about the world okay we have this lady that claims that this individual basically
reenacted how he would have done the murder and that's how the murder took place and it scared you enough to not
work for his grandma anymore right but you continue to text him and talk to him on the phone
like it doesn't make any sense so it's like you know then it makes it hard for me to believe your story at all you know
are you stupid are you a liar it doesn't necessarily mean that she was happy to receive communication from Harper right
but she kept replying we don't know that okay we don't know that because the only other part of her
testimony that talks about um her having contact with him after that particular incident is a situation
where he told her and I'm not certain if this was in person or if it was via text
but he told her I wish people would not talk about me murdering my friend I didn't do it
she did respond to him whether it be in person or via text by saying I told him if he didn't want people to talk about
it then he should probably not talk about it anymore himself okay um sorry I'm sorry I'm I apologize for
going off on there no no you're fine you're fine it's it's it's not clear but it sounds to me like there's a
possibility that he may have just tried to continue talking to her yeah um and he would have had her phone
number I'm guessing because she was looking after his grandmother at some point so let's talk about the defense
the defense has some pretty good arguments here the first one being is that they point out that there are 22
lab reports that are presented at court and nothing in any of those lab reports points to
Chad Reeves having been involved in the murder of Brandon Billings right stating that
basically except for the fact that we have Tammy Simone saying that he was involved we got nothing here we got
nothing well right and the prosecution already said that at the beginning yeah we don't have anything here well
they went on to point out that you know Simone after having left Reeves in 2004 that she had gone to the magistrate to
take out a warrant on Chad Reeves for malicious wounding assault battery and destruction of private property pointing
out that during no point of this meeting with the magistrate did she ever mention
the most well-known unsolved murder in the history of Grayson County right then he points out that in 2010 when she came
forward with the story she was flirting with a cop and Galax and then all of a sudden the story comes out he also
pointed out that Brandon Billings was found with his pants unzipped and undone with blood flowing up nothing flowing
down his chin he went through several of the details about the crime that were not known and he actually is getting
somewhere with this and it's take a minute to get there but pointing out some other things too that there were
tire tracks beside the rock that was found with Brandon Billings blood on it right states that this was in a turn
around area remember the investigators stated that it was about a hundred feet away from the truck he's describing this
area as an area that people would turn around their vehicle to go the other direction he also so this is the first
time that they're releasing the information that branding Billings pants were down correct his pants were
unzipped and undone it sounds like it doesn't sound like they were down okay um he also stated that the inside the
truck the armrest was tore up and there was a red baseball cap found somewhere on the ground at the crime
scene he's really I think he's bringing this up to just point out that there's a
lot more stuff going on at the crime scene than we were one aware of right and two this might point to somebody
possibly having been in the truck with Brandon before he was killed yeah he also stated that
um that when Brandon's truck hit the creek at least one wheel was spinning in the mud
so they had some kind of evidence of this and that the uh did I state that the the keys were found in the ignition
of the truck no no oh and here's another here's an answer to your question the truck was in neutral
he also stated that there was blood down the driver's side door with the door partly open and Billings hanging through
the window also stating that Billings was shot with a 38 caliber weapon three times in the head and once in the neck
and no gun or guns were recovered ever that matched to this crime now he said that the prosecutor in our opinion
failed to paint a picture for the jury as to what may have taken place what led to Brandon having been killed that night
well in contrast to that we have the defense who is going to start to paint a picture of what if for the jury and this
starts with him saying that the way that the truck was planted in the creek the passenger side door was blocked by a
tree preventing it from being opened and he asked the jury was someone inside the
truck pushing their way out the driver's side door had blood on it pressed against it as if someone was pulling
someone out of the cab on the driver's side he also pointed out that test the DNA
from Brandon Billings girlfriend was found in his pockets on his pants okay and that The Rock House area is known as
a quote-unquote Lover's Lane but we have surveillance at the um we have surveillance and eyewitnesses at the
convenience store and nobody ever claims that they saw her nobody claims to have seen Brandon with
anybody leaving that convenience store right and so he points out the question you
know is this really my defendant a case of a killing the wrong guy or is this a lover who is jealous I
don't know he also pointed out the defense also pointed out that there was DNA found at the crime scene of a second
unidentifiable person so just there there's a lot more going on here than in my opinion there's more
questions here brought up at trial than there are answers presented at trial basically we come full circle to
basically say we know nothing yeah well it the the jury they deliberated for four hours after the trial was over the
trial only took three days as probably not a good sign when the trial only takes three days basically
they called about 10 Witnesses and only one that being Tammy Simone well I mean you could debate it you
could debate it but it looks as as far as Reeves goes he's the guy on trial we talked a lot
about Harper but Reeves is actually the guy on trial and other than Tammy none of these 10 Witnesses make any
connection between this suspect and Brandon Billings they deliberated for four hours and Reeves was found not
guilty now he he will not be released he will not go free he will actually return
to federal prison because he was serving a 15-year sentence at the time for drug
trafficking charges from back in 2005. the weird thing here though is we do have Harper that is called to testify
and Reeves's um trial yeah and he was asked were you present the night Brandon Billings was
murdered his answer was I refuse to answer undergrounds that I may incriminate myself
he was then asked do you know who killed Brandon Billings and again refused to answer the question then asked did you
kill Brandon Billings to which Harper replied no sir after the trial of Chad Reeves we have
Harper George Albert Harper III he was charged with perjury because he had to give testimony under oath multiple times
sometimes in front of the grand jury sometimes in front of the jury at this trial the problem is
in those situations he was under oath I believe three times he gave a different story
so he perjured himself at least once more likely twice because having given three stories so to which he ends up
pleading he he pled guilty to the perjury charges he's back in prison on his old charges
plus these perjury charges he is the the murder charges against him for the case
of Brandon Billings has ultimately been dropped the prosecutor is stating though
this is not we're not throwing him out as a suspect the problem is you know Reeves went free
we need more evidence yeah we can't have another three-day trial we we can't bring Harper to trial after this and and
he ends up walking too so they're still looking for the evidence that is needed in this case
do I want answers of course do I want somebody to be guilty of course do I want there to be Justice for Brandon and
for his family of course the problem is there's nothing that I can look at in this trial and as far as the evidence
goes that points to me that they got the right person or persons right it doesn't point that they didn't
um it's just it's a matter of finding the truth yeah and as frustrating as it is that there's no one to hold
accountable for this tragic death for this horrible murder there's there's just nothing here I mean
our system would be completely broken if Reeves would have been found guilty on that day
[Music] we have a recommended reading for this week yes everybody check out the dominici affair this is an engrossing
investigation of the multiple murder of three English tourists in the French Countryside back in the 1950s written by
Martin kitchen he does a great job a fantastic job as he recreates the Tangled threads of this famous case
reconstructing the facts of the triple homicide check out the dominici affair by Martin kitchen you can check out all
of our recommended books on our website at truecrimegarage.com click on the recommended page thank you guys so much
for listening thanks for coming into the garage drinking some beers and hanging out with us means the world that's right
and until next week be good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] [Applause]

Brandon Billings /// Part 2 /// 159

Part 2 of 2

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

October - 2002; Brandon Billings an 18 year old Galax High School student and football player, was found shot to death near the New River in Grayson County, Virginia. The crime scene was confusing and there were not many leads. The killing remained a cold case without a break for more than a decade. Then the investigators received information that led them back to one of their original persons of interest.Beer of the Week - Blue Mountain Breweries Classic LagerGarage Grade - 4 out of 5 bottle caps

Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home

Brief Summary

The murder of Brandon Billings remains unsolved despite indictments and trials of two suspects, revealing deep emotional impacts on his family.

Key points

Brandon Billings' Tragic Death. Brandon was found shot dead just a day after his 18th birthday, leaving his family in shock.
The Cowardice of the Killer. Brandon's mother describes the killer as a coward for shooting him from behind.
A Mother's Heartbreaking Speech. At a memorial event, Sherry Billings expresses her grief and urges caution among friends.
A Break in the Case. In 2010, a former girlfriend accuses Chad Allen Reeves of involvement in Brandon's murder.
Cold Case Breakthrough. After 11 years, two suspects are indicted in the murder of Brandon Billings.
Trial Begins for Suspects. The prosecution opens the trial, revealing a lack of physical evidence against the defendant.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Brandon was the type of person that would walk away from any type of trouble.

Discussion about Brandon's character and nature.

4:57WatchNov 28, 2022

Tension

50/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.