The suspect in last week’s vicious murder of a young Baltimore tech entrepreneur was sentenced to serve a 30-year sentence in prison in 2015 but got out in 2022 — not as a result of parole but because of an earned credit system for good behavior that’s become more liberal in recent years.
Jason Billingsley, 32, was taken into custody without incident in Bowie, Maryland, late Wednesday after being named the prime suspect in 26-year-old Pava LaPere’s murder.
Cops believe he tricked the EcoMap Technologies founder into letting him into her apartment building by pretending he forgot his keys.
Billingsley, who previously pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and second-degree assault in 2009 and 2011, respectively, before serving time behind bars for the 2013 rape of a 25-year-old woman, had applied for parole and was refused in 2020, the Baltimore Banner first reported.
He appealed the decision and was denied again, according to David Blumberg, the longtime chair of the state parole commission.
By October 2022, he earned enough “diminution credits” to trigger mandatory release after serving about nine years and three months of what had become a 14-year sentence.
The accused killer had been charged with a first-degree sex offense in July 2013 and pleaded guilty in February 2015.
His sentence, backdated to when he was first incarcerated after his arrest, called for a term of 30 years, but with 16 years of that term suspended.
He got out even sooner than expected by racking up enough of the diminution credits.
The majority of states allow inmates to reduce time off their sentence for good behavior and participation in work programs.
But thanks to a criminal justice reform initiative called the Justice Reinvestment Act that was passed in 2011 and adopted by many states, including Maryland, inmates can cut their prison time by as much as half by earning those credits.
Many of the activists who pushed for and developed the Justice Reinvestment Act are connected to groups like the woke Safety and Justice Action Fund that’s campaigned for progressive district attorneys across the country.
They also have ties to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, which coined the term “justice reinvestment” in 2003 as part of a campaign for prison reform.
Maryland inmates can earn up to 30 days per month under the “diminution credit” system, according to a 2020 state report.
Those serving sentences for crimes of violence, large drug sentences or sex offenses can receive up to 20 days per month.
They earn credit for work tasks, education and special projects, including academic programs and other work details.
But even the author of the 2020 report appeared to admit the diminution credit system has some quirks.
“Maryland’s diminution credit system has evolved over time to become a unique and complicated scheme,” Claire E. Rossmark wrote in the report.
“The system is administered by the Commitment Unit within DOC. The State is in accord with most other states in allowing good conduct credits as well as earned time credits to reduce the length of an inmate’s incarceration …. The Justice Reinvestment Act expanded diminution credit availability such that many State correctional facility inmates may reduce their incarceration time by as much as 50% through good behavior and program participation.”
Police said last week that Billingsley — who was released on mandatory supervision after completing a rape sentence less than a year ago — was already being hunted when he was suspected of killing LaPere, the CEO who was on this year’s Forbes “30 under 30” list for social impact.
A warrant was issued for Billingsley within hours of a Sept. 19 attack that involved the “targeted” gunpoint rape of a woman who was also set on fire along with a man who was with her.
The 6-foot-4, 305-pound suspect knew the victims in the earlier attack and was let into the apartment where the crime took place, acting Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said, according to CBS News.
Police began tracking Billingsley’s phone, financial transactions and other possible leads on Sept. 20 — but he evaded capture, despite officers frequently coming within several steps of his location, Worley said.
Days into the hunt, LaPere was found beaten to death on the roof of her Mount Vernon apartment building.
Her body was found Monday — six days after the earlier attack — but police believe she may have been killed on Friday.
