7 Suspects Held in Slaying of Fla. Couple

Safe Stolen During Deadly Break-in At Home of Pair Known for Adopting Disabled Children

(CBS/AP)  An ex-convict who taught self-defense to children. A day laborer who served prison time for killing a man in a fight. An Air Force staff sergeant attached to an elite special operations unit.

Somehow, authorities say, they ended up part of a loosely connected group of seven men charged in the shooting deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings, a wealthy Florida Panhandle couple known for adopting children with special needs.

The suspects, some dressed as ninjas, stole a safe and other items during the break-in Thursday at the sprawling Billings home west of Pensacola. Nine of the couple's 13 adopted children were home at the time. Three saw the intruders but were not hurt. Authorities would not say what was in the safe or what else was taken.

Some of the masked men entered through the front door, while others slipped in through an unlocked utility door in the back. They were in and out in under 10 minutes. The crime was captured by an extensive video surveillance system the Billings used to keep tabs on their many children.

"It was a very well-planned and well-executed operation," said Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan.

The last three of the seven suspects were arrested Tuesday, though Morgan said there still might be more arrests. State Attorney Bill Eddins said robbery was the main motive for the crime.

Adult daughter Ashley Markham - one of four Billings children from previous marriages - sobbed Tuesday as she hugged Morgan, who said he kept a promise made to her the night of the slayings.

"It is my honor today to tell you, Ashley, your family we have found them and they are in custody," Morgan said.

The suspects ranged in age from 16 to 56, and several were day laborers who knew each other through a pressure washing business and an auto detailer they worked for. One, Donnie Ray Stallworth, was with the Air Force Special Operations Command with an aircraft maintenance squadron at Hurlburt Field near Fort Walton Beach. It wasn't clear how he knew the others.

"We're dealing with a group of folks with rare exception - of course, there's a couple of people who are not - that again are basically day laborer sorts, folks that get odd jobs, part-time jobs and they drift," Morgan said. "With the exception of Mr. Stallworth you don't have any career-minded people in this group."

Morgan called 35-year-old suspect Leonard Gonzalez Jr. a "pivotal person" in organizing the crime, but stopped short of identifying him as the mastermind. He was charged Sunday with murder.

In court Tuesday, he read a statement proclaiming his innocence.

"The sheriff intentionally thrust me into the public's eye without any charges being filed and also intentionally placed me in a suicide ward to make me look even guiltier," Gonzalez said.

Described by friends as a loving husband and father, Gonzalez's passion is teaching karate to young children, reports CBS News correspondent Terrell Brown.

Just last month, he won an award from a community organization for "Service to Mankind," Brown reports.

Gwinn Corley, a spokesman for the group that gave Gonzalez and his wife the award for their program, said they brought their six young children to self-defense presentations.

"We were impressed with them," Corley said. "He was talking about children and their respect for their elders. They both seemed to have a passion to teaching the arts to abused women and kids, they had a vision for how to give free self defense."

Gonzalez also once served in the National Guard - police think it was that experience that helped pull off the attack with military-like precision, Brown reports.

Records show Gonzalez, who was arrested Sunday in the Billings case, served time in Florida State Prison on burglary and forgery charges in the mid-1990s.

His father, Leonard Gonzalez Sr., was also arrested. The 56-year-old was charged Sunday night with evidence tampering after authorities said he tried to cover up some damage on a red van seen on surveillance video pulling away from the house. Officials said the damage was unrelated to the crime. Tips from the public led police to the van Saturday.

The elder Gonzalez owned a pressure washing business and may have visited the Billings property once before. Another man arrested and charged with murder Sunday, day laborer Wayne Coldiron, 41, sometimes worked for him and also may have visited the property, Morgan said.

Coldiron, who appeared in court Tuesday and said he had lost his job as a plumber, served two years in a Tennessee prison in the early 1990s after killing a man during a fight. He also served nearly two years in prison in Florida on an aggravated assault charge.

The other four suspects were arrested Monday and Tuesday.

Authorities in neighboring Okaloosa County arrested 31-year-old Gary Sumner, another day laborer who was in a county jail on an unrelated traffic charge. On Tuesday, three more men were arrested: Stallworth, 19-year-old Frederick Lee Thorton, and a 16-year-old whom officials are not naming because he is a minor.

Eddins, the prosecutor, said he would seek first-degree murder indictments from a grand jury against all the suspects, including Gonzalez Sr. He would not say whether he will seek the death penalty.

Escambia County Judge Tom Johnson refused to set bail for the younger Gonzalez and Coldiron at the request of State Attorney Bill Eddins. Johnson set their arraignments for Aug. 6. Bond for the elder Gonzalez had already been set at $500,000. The suspects arrested Monday and Tuesday are due in court this week except for Stallworth, who must be extradited from Alabama, where he was arrested.

The Billings family attended the hearing Tuesday but made no statements. Some were in tears afterward.

Friends, meanwhile, struggled to understand how the couple could have been killed in such a horrific way.

"Melanie and Byrd both would give you the shirt off their back and maybe they were too trusting," said Patsy Brown, who had known Melanie Billings for 22 years.

[ttinsly]

Special Forces often = torturers, murderers, mercenaries, carrying out the evil deeds of a blood and gold thirsty empire. This is consistent with those values besides the pretensions of Church on Sundays and charity work for the nations we terrorize. No, the death penalty will not deal with this; because it is precisely the blood thirsty values we have which foster all this blood. That of "God" in name only, Guns, and violence...

[dekooning2]

Unfortunately these posts have quickly become the equivalency of a truckstop bathroom wall. Hateful, ignorant, right-left junk...the same sociopaths day in, day out...nothing is revealed.I leave you to stew in your own waste.

[stickdog3]

Why are you all upset at stuart2020? He's being himself. He can't help it. This is how he thinks. Where do you think it comes from? Guess what? Theres lots of stuart2020's out there, I mean millions of them. So don't go getting all riled up. He's an a*s*s*h*o*l*e* at least he's being up front, he's not a closet case. You know where he stands. Its pathetic, but, thats the reality of it. Poor b*a*st*a*r*d* he probably isn't even aware of his condition. What a piece of s**t he is. Whew!!

[tramplers]

It was their own fault. They had money and a big house and left their doors unlocked. They practically begged those poor unfortunate mistreated men to rob and kill them. Didn't they know that those guys had a right to the money that they had worked for and saved? It wasn't those mens fault, they were victims of society. At least that is what the scumbag lawyers representing them will say to get try and get them off. That's just another reason I sleep with a 9 MM next to my bed.

[rhs648]

tramplers - These are the arguments we can expect to hear from the defense lawyers. Sadly, some jurors mat be swayed by one or more of these arguments. Don't forget the arguments that they were abused, mistreated, or deprived as children. Or perhaps their wives or girlfriends didn't show them respect. And the list goes on.

[Brandywine33]

I live in a semi-rural area but nearly always keep my doors locked, particularly at night. Even if the law is passed to take our guns away, I will keep mine. There is no way. . . . . . that is, absolutely no way I will live without a gun. Not only for the human predators, but we have many coyotes, some big cats, snakes, *****, skunks, etc. There is just no way to live out here without a gun.

[12345-908903]

One or more of these men had recently worked at the house. Remember the girl in Utah who was abducted and held for 6 months or a year by a jesus-freak who had done some odd jobs at her family home. Same principle at work here. The odd-job men thought there was money kept in the home because of something they saw or heard while working there. Question would be - how did there come to be so many criminals tied to this one event. They obviously weren't planning on sharing $100 7 ways. They must have believed they would be sharing a lot more than that. Someone in the bunch lost their head and shot the Billingses. Senseless. Stupid.

[gunownerdan]

Video cameras are good for evidence but when lives are at stake nothing is better for self defense than having a firearm and knowing how to use it.

[geewheeez]

sad that we can't even open our doors as we things like this happens everyday, and we have to purchase a gun to protect ourselves...I guess all the guns in the world still did not make us a safer country to live in. Go Figure.

[timping1]

Freakin scumbag idiots.

[bajajohn1]

Whatever the reason in the warped mind of the accused murderers, killers of those two people who provided life to disabled children, killed them in pre-meditated cold blood, will find little compassion from the trier of fact.

[itgranny]

Anyone else get the feeling there's more to this story? If it were one killer, you think crazy jerk, 2-3 and you think robbery gone bad, but to have 6 at the moment and maybe more!

The story just doesn't seem to sit right with me.

They said this guy had a loan business. Maybe that's got more to do with it than the news is telling.

[mswolfestock]

itgranny -- I'm bothered by parts of this story, too. It was reported that their doors were not locked. But with all of those special needs kids, I'd think they would have to lock the doors to make sure the kids did not get out and wander off. I know they had surveillance cameras everywhere but unless the doors were alarmed the kids could get out at night while the parents were sleeping. That is the part of this story that I cannot wrap my head around.

[itgranny]

You're right. I live in a part of the country where few of us lock our doors either. If they wanted to get in to hurt me, they could and the half hour it takes for the sheriff to get here, why bother. i do have to dogs to alert me though.

That being said though, this family is different. I'm sure some of those kids must be mobile. Wouldn't you think they'd at least lock the doors to keep the kids in at night so they don't go off wandering? I would think that's just a basic saftey precaution.

Murder is wrong anyway you slice it, and if guilty, these guys should fry, but after the maddoff and other things wealthy individuals have been getting away with as of late, what's so hard about believing that this guy perhaps wasn't so lily-white as he wanted everyone to believe. Why were he and his wife shot and none of the kids?

A lot of it just doesn't make much sense.

[USASTILLONTOP]

stuart2020 - People are murdered by these scum and you use the post to say something so ridiculous. *** is wrong with you?

[John_Merritt]

Apparently you must be new to this site. This is a QUIET day for the bigots, haters and morons. You are right USA, these guys were just plain scum. The question I have 'What was their motive'. If you ask me, it was just FOR PRACTICE. That is chilling!

[USASTILLONTOP]

stuart2020 - You're an ignorant ******.

[docpeter1953]

Anybody but me think the lead-in photo makes all of these guys look like lifers anyway?

[mswolfestock]

Positively SUB-HUMAN.

[stuart2020]

Looks like a bunch of radical skinhead type republicans to me. They let the black man in on the deal for PR's sake. The republicans give blacks opportunities like that.

Fry them all I say. America must stop this extremism coming from the far far far wingding right.

[njdoctor]

These were liberals. Most all crimes are by liberals. Blacks are behind 95% of crimes in Florida.

[jclark7613]

This is the saddest story. I lived in Florida for 10 years and this couple was the greatest. So caring and loving. The death penalty is to good for the cowards that killed them. They need to spend their miserable life behind bars til they die.

[docpeter1953]

preferably in unsanitary conditions complete with their closest relatives; the roaches and rats.

[John_Merritt]

Sometimes 'an eye for an eye' is warranted. Now they will probably spend upteen number of years in jail awaiting on an appeal, and finally die after tens of millions of dollars are spent trying to defend them.

[iowa0319]

This is very tragic. But, I can't believe in this day and age there are people out there who still don't lock their doors. It blows my mind.

[aChangeOfIdeas]

Maybe we should all live in constant fear, but I rarely lock my doors when I'm home either. These people seemed quite determined and I doubt that a locked door would have stopped them.

[Kuei1248]

I don't lock my doors. I like for people to break in.

[irreverent1-2009]

Alot of people will be getting a free upgrade to death row.

[stuart2020]

Good for 'em.