So someone choreographed 5 men to storm a compound that is fully established with cameras, to take some money from an old man. This is the story if you drank the Kool-Aid. This is the ultimate puzzle wrapped inside an enigma. The risk in this crime is high. The gain is low. No money actually came from it. Why so many men? Why at that location? Why? Why? WHY?
Then I see an article somewhere that says there is drug involvement. Makes sense, but still… So I look into this drug matter. I find that the DEA has an on-going investigation in the Pensacola area and in particular 2 cases involving Byrd Billings. NSA also has some oversight. A 73 year old man? Dope? NSA? DEA? Then there’s Patrick’s story of it being BIGGER than a robbery. That makes more sense to me than a “simple robbery”. The DEA documents suggest that Byrd Billings was being investigated for trafficking heroine, laundering money and human trafficking from a Mexican cartel, Los Zetas who were brokering an alliance to some degree with the Gulf Cartel which is loosely connected to the Columbo crime family. What? This guy has 13 foster kids. Trafficking humans? Heroine? Jesus Christ!
Then I watched Justin Billings interview. It was a couple of hours. He never cries. He is matter of fact in his statements. He doesn’t express any kind of emotion. No anger, no grief. He claims that his friend Walter spared his girlfriend for a price. What? Spared his girlfriend? What the hell does that mean? Is this guy high? No one seriously does this right? He’s spinning a yarn but implies he knew this would happen and he protected his girlfriend. Why would a simple robbery have any thing to do with a teenage girl? And if he knew what was to happen, why not go to police? or to his parents to warn them? Who the hell is Walter? Why is he not investigated? He seems to have some knowledge of this hit. Walter is never talked to or about beyond this interview.
It is ironic that when deputies arrived at the crime scene, Ashley Markham, Melanie’s daughter & her husband James “Blue” Markham were there. Justin was there by then. They told police about the video but it was Justin they asked to get the video because he was the only one there who knew how it worked. They didn’t wait for someone from in law enforcement to touch the video. They allowed the family to get the video. In a perfect world, the family would have no reason to do anything to skew evidence in a murder investigation, but this world isn’t perfect. Could there have been tampering? And if this surveillance system is so sophisticated that Ashley, Blue or any other learned person couldn’t figure it out, who was supposed to disable the cameras the way like every single one of the suspects said would happen? Justin, perhaps? But he is never looked at. Why? I’m just not understanding the breakdown of protocol from law enforcement. The family had roughly 30 minutes before the crime scene investigators got there. There were people walking around. No order to the scene. Is it possible some things were “taken” to not be found by the police? Is it possible things could have been altered to appear one way with another being the truth? From the beginning, this investigation is bungled.
Conjuring Justice 