Leonard Gonzalez Jr.

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Guess I was wrong, that is what I get for reading the PNJ comments!
 
Entry on clerk's site:

210 05/21/2010 FILE MEMO SIGNED BY JUDGE GEEKER; THE COURT HAS DESIGNATED THE WEEKS OF OCTOBER 25 & NOVEMBER 2 AS JURY TRIAL WEEKS FOR DEFENDANT
 
Did anyone watch the TLC documentary Home Invasion Murders: The Billings and The Petits? (see media links) I found it ill thought out considering the perps in the Petit case have been tried and convicted while the ones in the Billings case have yet to go to trial. It will be hard enough to find a jury pool as is.
 
Per ECCO:
210 05/21/2010 FILE MEMO SIGNED BY JUDGE GEEKER; THE COURT HAS DESIGNATED THE WEEKS OF OCTOBER 25 & NOVEMBER 2 AS JURY TRIAL WEEKS FOR DEFENDANT

Does anyone know if a jury is picked prior to these weeks designated for trial or does the jury process just begin during those weeks?
 
Has anyone heard if LPG, Jr.'s trial will be televised (dependent upon no change of venue of course)? I'd think Pensacola's hotels and restaurants would be salivating at the income that would bring in.
 
Since there was no change of venue in LPG, Jr.'s trial, will that affect motions for change of venue in the other perps' trials?
 
Check out Rick Outzen's Blog post today, 2/10/11

http://ricksblog.biz/?p=14253

Patrick Gonzalez issues Public Statement concerning the Capital Murder charges of Byrd and Melanie Billing

Interesting reading lol. The whole time I'm thinking to myself "THEY HAVE YOU ON CAMERA"
 
I saw that. Was the video ever used to positively identify anyone though? Or just coupled with testimony as to who was who?

There are so many things wrong with his statement. But also some things that say (scratching head)..."yea, what about that?"
I agree that it is so strange that Hugh Wiggins was given immunity and did not testify in Jr.'s trial. And why give him immunity since he seemed to be up to his eyeballs in this, unless he is testifying to bigger and more serious stuff, beyond just the murders???

But Jr.'s arguments were strange also... 'My bio dad's ex wife heard me talking about a *different* home invasion/robbery...not THAT one! See?''My friends that I hung out with and tried to recruit were really a bunch of unreliable scumbags that can't be believed and that's why I hung out with them ...oh, ooops ...'

Coldiron, who didn't have much to gain, put Jr as the shooter at the crime.
(Besides the 2 men that testified at Jr.'s trial.)
LPG Jr. never does come out and say "I wasn't there. I wasn't involved." Does he? He just seems to say that the state does not prove it's case sufficiently so therefore he is not guilty.

There was a lot of up front publicity but I do believe that people can see past that when in the jury box. I watched the trial and it seemed pretty convincing.

Yet, I did end watching the trial with many more questions that usually began with "What about ...??" "Why did we never hear about ..."Something unsettling about how quick and how limited the testimony was.
Maybe it was just the prosecution's strategy that we have enough to convict without getting into all the fine details?? I don't know.

All a sad and strange tale.
 
This case really shines light on the underworld and how interwoven it is with what we see on the surface. Jr.'s entire rant seems, to me, to reek of resentment from realizing that he was just a flunky being USED by others. Ok, so he doesn't like that some others were not prosecuted, I don't like it either. But THEY did not pull the trigger. THEY were smart enough to find a flunky who would, in turn, find other flunkies, who were riding high on a narcissistic-martial-arts-movie-thriller-fantasy that would think it was "so coooool" to go into this house and do what they did. Boy, talk about DUMB.

Ok, Jr., you are sitting in jail because you are criminal, homicidal, and DUMB. This rant of a statement that you just issued shows that you are really REALLY steamed about the BEING DUMB part, NOT about being criminal and homicidal. And ya think this rant was going to REDEEM your criminal, homicidal, dumb*ss???

Nope, just sets it in pretty solid concrete. I agree with Betty, who commented to the news article; he's just developing a phobia to needles. Pppfffftt
 
megamami said:
I saw that. Was the video ever used to positively identify anyone though? Or just coupled with testimony as to who was who?

There are so many things wrong with his statement. But also some things that say (scratching head)..."yea, what about that?"
I agree that it is so strange that Hugh Wiggins was given immunity and did not testify in Jr.'s trial. And why give him immunity since he seemed to be up to his eyeballs in this, unless he is testifying to bigger and more serious stuff, beyond just the murders???

But Jr.'s arguments were strange also... 'My bio dad's ex wife heard me talking about a *different* home invasion/robbery...not THAT one! See?''My friends that I hung out with and tried to recruit were really a bunch of unreliable scumbags that can't be believed and that's why I hung out with them ...oh, ooops ...'

Coldiron, who didn't have much to gain, put Jr as the shooter at the crime.
(Besides the 2 men that testified at Jr.'s trial.)
LPG Jr. never does come out and say "I wasn't there. I wasn't involved." Does he? He just seems to say that the state does not prove it's case sufficiently so therefore he is not guilty.

There was a lot of up front publicity but I do believe that people can see past that when in the jury box. I watched the trial and it seemed pretty convincing.

Yet, I did end watching the trial with many more questions that usually began with "What about ...??" "Why did we never hear about ..."Something unsettling about how quick and how limited the testimony was.
Maybe it was just the prosecution's strategy that we have enough to convict without getting into all the fine details?? I don't know.

All a sad and strange tale.
Click to expand...

Megamami, you obviously put much thought into your posts - just want to let you know I enjoy reading them! :) I agree with you that there are a lot of still unanswered questions to this case.

Although it does not affect Jr.'s innocence or guilt, I was surprised to find that the allegations he made against the 2 witnesses who the SA called to testify against him - TE and LS (see numbered para. 6 of Jr.'s public statement) seem to indeed be true. The charges and the end results of cases for each on the ECC's site look very odd and they happened just prior to Jr.'s trial and their subsequent testimony.

Making deals with folks who have criminal records a mile long in EC and SR with current charges pending against them in exchange for testimony, IMO, doesn't seem right.
 
Is this going to be on Court TV?


http://www.pnj.com/article/20110214/NEWS01/102140321/1006/RSS01

February 14, 2011

Gonzalez Jr. to learn his fate in Billings killings

Circuit Judge Nick Geeker is expected to announce his decision on whether Leonard Patrick Gonzalez Jr. will be executed for the July 9, 2009, murders of the couple inside their Beulah home.

Gonzalez Jr., 36, was convicted in October of firing the fatal shots in the killings, which took place during an unsuccessful attempt to steal a safe that contained $164,000 from the Beulah couple's home
 
http://www.pnj.com/article/20121205...ase-appeal?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Supreme Court hears Billings murder case appeal

12:32 PM, Dec 5, 2012
Written by
Eric Heisig

*snip*

Leonard Gonzalez Jr., 38, is appealing his death sentence in the murders of Byrd and Melanie Billings in July 2009.

An attorney for a death row inmate convicted of killing a wealthy Beulah couple told the Florida Supreme Court today that prosecutors' references to the couple's nine disabled children should not have been allowed during the trial.

More at above link.
 
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/620a8644c88e422297498f94ced78415/FL--Florida-Couple-Slain

Fla. justices hearing death sentence appeal in murder of couple who had 9 special needs kids

By MELISSA NELSON-GABRIEL Associated Press
December 05, 2012 - 5:37 pm EST

*snip*

PENSACOLA, Florida — An attorney for a man sentenced to die for the 2009 double murder of a Panhandle couple told the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday that the man should get a new trial because prosecutors prejudiced jurors by putting an imaginary script about what happened on the night of the killings in their minds.

More at link
 
I went to High School with Pat Poff AKA Leonard Gonzales Jr. I was not surprised when he got arrested. I remember one night a group of my friends were on the beach, (a group of 16 year old girls), and he walked up to us in the parking lot and grabbed me by the throat and tried to get in the car with us. Luckily, we were a big group, and we were able to make a rukus and make a get away. He was an aggressive but deceptive little punk. His mom who had and may still have her own karate studio is loved in the community.

I do remember his first wife, although I don't remember her name. She pledged in my sorority in college at UWF. He showed up with her at an event once, and tried to act like we were old friends. Selective memory. I am glad he is locked up forever.
 
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