A Florida man allegedly gunned down his pregnant girlfriend just days after he was acquitted of double murder, authorities said Wednesday.
Tampa police officers arrested alleged killer Billy Adams Wednesday and charged him with first-degree murder and killing of an unborn child eight days after the fatal shooting of Alana Sims.
Investigators said Adams and Sims were in a relationship, the report said.
Adams, 25, was found not guilty of killing two men on Jan. 27, just a few days before he allegedly killed Sims, who investigators said was the father of the unborn child, Fox 13 reported.
Tampa Police Major Michael Stout said the victim thought she was going to a party for Adams to celebrate his not-guilty verdict before gunfire rang out, the television station reported. Stout reportedly said the motive appears to be that Adams was not ready to be a father.
Tampa Interim Police Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement the crime allegedly committed by Adams is “unthinkable.”
“I hope this arrest brings some closure to the victim’s family who is mourning the loss of two loved ones,” he said. “We are working with the State Attorney’s Office to ensure the suspect is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
State Attorney Susan Lopez said the suspect’s actions were “unimaginable” as she referenced the previous trial.
“While we respect the verdict of the jury in the prior case, we disagreed with it and that is why we prosecuted him,” Lopez said in a statement. “We will continue to work with (Tampa police) to prosecute him for these latest crimes.”
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Stout, the police major, said Adams allegedly admitted to pulling the trigger in the fatal shooting, but did not show much remorse for it.
“I didn’t find him remorseful in watching my detectives do the interview, no,” Stout said, according to Fox 13. The slaying happened three days after a Tampa jury found Adams not guilty in the 2020 shooting of two men in a Lutz recording studio.
It took the panel of six men and six women about four hours to acquit Adams of two counts of first-degree murder. They apparently heeded arguments that Adams killed Trevon Albury and Daniel Thompson in self-defense.
It was a stunning conclusion to a weeklong trial that Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella said was “at the very least a close call.”
“The jury did find that you are not criminally responsible for that, but I certainly hope that you find yourself in the future never in a situation that may involve anything like this,” Sabella told Adams after the jury’s verdict.
The judge told Adams to stay out of trouble. “I don’t ever want to see you back here in this courthouse,” he said.
A pivotal moment in the trial came when Adams took the witness stand and calmly explained why he killed Albury and Thompson.
He described how a late-night music session in a small Lutz recording studio turned tense when he overheard the pair talk about robbing the studio’s owner, Joseph Meeks.
He said he saw Albury pull a gun and point it at Meeks, who sat unaware of the danger.
“I pulled out my gun and I shot Mr. Albury,” Adams said, “in fear for Mr. Meeks being shot or myself being shot.”
Thompson then reached for Adams’ gun, he said. Adams shot him twice in the face.
“I was in fear that he would have shot me or Mr. Meeks,” Adams said. “So I shot Mr. Thompson, back to back.”
Adams was free on bail for most of the two years that the earlier murder case was pending, but he was restricted from leaving his parents’ New Tampa home and subject to the electronic monitoring of his movements. He also was forbidden from possessing guns and had to turn over his concealed weapons permit. Those restrictions ceased when he was found not guilty.
Had the jury convicted him, Adams would have received a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Instead, he walked out of court that day with his attorneys, escorted by sheriff’s deputies.
Adams, who has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram, released an album on Feb. 1 titled “Underground Icon.” Its cover included an image of a news story headline about his previous murder case.
On Wednesday, his Instagram page had been made private.
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