A Florida man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly killing a pregnant woman in front of her three-year-old son just days after he was acquitted of a double homicide, according to police.
Tampa Police announced that Billy Adams III was arrested on first-degree murder and killing an unborn baby by injury to the mother charges on February 8 in connection with the killing of a woman, since identified as 22-year-old Alana Sims, per Fox 13 Tampa. Court filings indicate she was discovered with a fatal gunshot wound to the head in the 10700 block of Pictorial Park Drive on January 30.
Sims’s family revealed she was five-months pregnant at the time of her death, per the outlet.
According to the court documents, Sims’s toddler son was found in the vehicle “physically unharmed.”
“This is a complete tragedy,” Fox 13 quoted Tampa Police spokesperson Chrystal Clark as saying. “You have a child now who’s without a mother because someone took her life while the child was sitting right there in the car behind her as it happened.”
Police interviewed Sims’s family members, leading them to Adams, who was Simss’ “boyfriend,” per the document. The filing indicates that when detectives spoke to Adams, he denied paternity of Sims’ unborn child and claimed he hadn’t been in contact with her for months.
He also claimed he had been at home all night on January 30, according to the filing.
However, the document alleges that Adam’s story changed when detectives presented him wth surveillance footage from that night. The footage allegedly showed a car registered to Adams’ father at “entrance/exit points of Easton Park subdivision where the murder occurred.”
At this point, “Adams recanted his earlier statements about being home all evening” and claimed he “was with friends earlier in the evening” in question, providing video to support that assertion, per the filing. However, the document indicates that the video was found to have actually been taken on February 1 and that two witnesses denied being with Adams on January 30.
The filing indicates that Adams eventually admitted to meeting her that night and claimed to have killed her in self-defense. Adams initially said he accidentally shot her while trying to take a gun she had used to threaten him, according to the document.
Text messages from January 29 quoted in the document, allegedly between Adams and one Lakenya Brantley, seem to suggest Adams was displeased about Sims’ pregnancy. At one point, Adams allegedly texted Brantley, “tomorrow,this s**t done.
“Other messages indicate that Brantley was upset concerning the victim’s pregnancy and that Adams, Ill wanted to have his life and that ‘she’ wouldn’t be included,” the filing asserted.
“This ain’t the way baby,” Brantley allegedly replied.
Adams, a rapper known by his stage name “ACE NH,” was acquitted of first-degree murder and burglary on January 27, Law and Crime noted.
Fox 13 reported that in that case, Adams claimed self-defense after a shooting in a music studio, saying:
“I pulled out my gun and I shot Mr. [Trevon] Albury in fear of Mr. [Joseph] Meeks being shot or myself being shot,” explained Adams. “Mr. [Daniel] Thompson grabs my gun and tries to take my gun from me, and I was in fear that he would have shot me, so I shot Mr. Thompson.”
Tampa Police Interim Chief Lee Bercaw remarked on the shockingly narrow window between the verdict and the alleged murder.
“Mere days after he was acquitted of a separate crime, our homicide suspect did the unthinkable when he killed an innocent woman and her unborn child,” he said in a statement.
A bond hearing is scheduled for Monday, per Fox 13.
You can follow Michael Foster on Twitter at @realmfoster.
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