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

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chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music] crime 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 6th 20 2 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 and there was something too
where the the mother would be asleep and as she'd be coming out of the sleep she
would think that she heard him talking yeah that 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 is a coward to shoot him from behind a coward then and 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 mhm 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 right why was the seat belt cut why was
the shirt placed above his head 6 months after Brandon's death police still had no motive and no suspect the reward fund
had grown to nearly $14,000 remind remind you this was one that friends and family had to put
together themselves they had to fund raise 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
Sher gave a speech at this event um 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 start of the investigation and we have the autopsy but where do we go from here 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 what 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
like you said you know you you're you're dirt bag if you need money to call in the tip um but uh some people sometimes
that happens mhm five years later wow we're to we're going to have to keep fast forward we're going to have to fast
forward to move along Delan 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 5-year anniversary we have one investigator that is currently running down a tip
right now every call that comes through and 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 hope 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 uh you a
sheriff's department that you feel is inadequate or or why aren't they solving this and this is kind of when the small
town starts talking about the conspir iracy of maybe Brandon stumbled upon something he wasn't supposed to and
maybe this was uh uh done by the hands of the law well Sher 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 so there's
a new sheriff in town is you know what happens with these parents when when their son or daughter is taken from them
or killed and there 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 M 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 sit 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 MH never seen that ever before in a crime that I know of right person's 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 discussed with this 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 fromand 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 EV evidence is trampled over 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 shoty work 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 maybe 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 Lucy 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 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 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 mhm 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 cuz 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 they 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 cuz 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 mhm a former living girlfriend of a man named Chad Allen Reeves comes
forward and she is accusing him of having killed brand 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 you very dismissive very dismissive well we've
heard this before I didn't mean to be okay the X this is Tammy Simone uh she provided the break that implicated
Reeves in the case she described for investigators what Reeves told her in the hours after Billings was killed on
October 6th 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 5:00 a.m. that day Reeves told Tammy to go
downstairs and then he told her to count what she said says is a large sum of cash that Reeves had laid out on the
kitchen table tamy how much a large sum of cash according to Tammy Reeves Tam 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 tamy 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 tamy Simone apparently she left Reeves they split up in 2004 but she did not come forward to
investigators with this story until 2010 6 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 M and then the colonel cust on the
show I was quoting uh this man and Reeves those are not my words but 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 have no clue what that involves well I just wanted to know because like for some people a large sum
of money is $200 you know and it could have been 200 ons 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 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 I 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 it appears with his words the 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 reason I'm actually guessing the money didn't come from Brandon 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 boy screw 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 happen 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 mhm how did that happen mhm and but but at what
point did you know it's the wrong guy because at some point somebody's shooting him from 6 to 12 Ines away yeah
so I don't know but but the the picture is becoming clearer here well and it 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 Mur something no but it's just a you
know it's the question that you know when you start looking into these uh 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 C and why they just don't seem to have [Music] anything this show is sponsored by
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Angie that [Music] all right 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 G 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 II 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 vau 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 Von took the
investigation over as a cold case in 2008 from the former Sheriff this is Jerry Wilson who whose work was
commended V said we appreciate what Sher 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% 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
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 uh 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 uh 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 um so we have Reeves
who's going to go on trial first mhm 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 balls 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 okay 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 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 what 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 question 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 going to 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 they basically they stood up and said we have
nothing and then they sat 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 G convenience store at 3:40 a.m. right and then we have Barkley the guy that's camping with his
wife hearing the shots at 4: a.m. 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 GX
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 Brandon Billings said that he was heading home right I guess Billings told them that he was heading
home ha 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
investigations 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 which would be I
would guess would be damn near none at almost 4 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 s 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 cuz 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 mhm
uh she never suspected her son uh to have been abused by Chad Reeves never expected any NE 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 test 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 going to have her take a piss test yeah and arresting 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 uh Chad
Reeves basically slept all day uh until about 3:00 or 4: 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% 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 scrilla 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 the paranoid guy that's following
you well well that's making you piss in a cup and yeah it's 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 cuz 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 Brandon Billings mhm 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 Billings Brandon Billings you
would have to know him enough to know that he goes by Brandon Billings 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 8 years after Brandon's death 5 years after Reeves had went to prison on drug
charges she said that part of this was because she was afraid um 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 light her 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 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 if he's sending people to your house this is the
stuff that sounds scary yeah and she said 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 got in a relationship with
him right at no point in the trial this is kind of the strange thing here though
too and 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 reev stated he was in the intended target of the shooting the ended up killing Brandon Billings
right 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 Ross it 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 Fiddlers convention in G 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 of as being the person that was seen with Brandon's girlfriend at this convention and she
picked picked out this Harper guy she picked out the George Harper guy so if we buy the girlfriend story against Chad
Reeves then maybe Chad was told by Harper that this was the wrong guy but actually Harper was targeting uh 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 uh 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 Bing'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 the 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 shirt stuck his you know fake gun behind her ear and pretended to be pulling the
trigger mhm 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 har ER 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 so I'm sorry I'm I apologize for going off on there no no you're F 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 tamy 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 in GX 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 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 turnaround area remember
the investigator stated that it was about a 100 ft away from the truck he's describing this area as an area that
people would turn around their vehicle to go the other direction so this is the first time that they're releasing the
information that Brandon 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 we 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 they also pointed out that test that 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 Lovers Lane but we 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 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 4 hours after the trial was over the trial
only took three days yeah it's probably not a good sign when the trial only takes three days BAS 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 4 hours and Reeves was found not guilty now now he he will not be
released he will not go free he will actually return to federal prison because he was serving a 15year 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 in 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 plead guilty to the perjury charges he's back
in prison on his old charges plus these perjury charges he is the the Mur Mur 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 there's still looking for the evidence that is needed in this
case do I want answers of course do 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 and 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 a there's just nothing
here I mean our system would be completely broken if Reeves would have been found guilty on that
[Music] day 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 and you can check out all of our recommended books on our website at truecrime garage.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
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Brandon Billings /// Part 2 /// 159

Part 2 of 2

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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

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Brief Summary

Brandon Billings was murdered in 2002; suspects were indicted but acquitted due to lack of evidence, leaving the case unresolved.

Key points

Brandon Billings' Tragic Death. Brandon was found shot dead just after his 18th birthday, leaving his family devastated.
Frustration with Investigation. Brandon's parents express their frustration with the handling of the investigation.
Break in the Case. In 2010, a former girlfriend of a suspect comes forward with shocking claims.
Cold Case No More. After 11 years, two suspects are indicted in the Brandon Billings murder case.
Confession from Ex-Girlfriend. Reeves' ex-girlfriend comes forward, claiming he confessed to the murder.
Trial Begins with No Evidence. The prosecution admits there’s no compelling physical evidence against Reeves.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Whoever did this is a coward.

Sherry Billings on her son's murder.

5:23WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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