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Baltimore CEO was killed by repeat offender who should have never been on the street, officials allege
NBC News ^ | Sept. 26, 2023, 10:29 PM CDT | By Antonio Planas and Tim Stelloh

Posted on 09/27/2023 8:49:24 AM PDT by Red Badger

Pava LaPere, the founder of EcoMap Technologies, was found dead in an apartment Monday. Police say they are looking for a suspect considered armed and dangerous.

Police in Baltimore say they are searching for a repeat violent offender who should not have been free after a 26-year-old tech CEO was found dead at an apartment Monday.

Pava LaPere, the CEO and founder of EcoMap Technologies, whose accomplishments earned her a spot on the Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list, was found dead about 11:30 a.m. Monday at an apartment with apparent signs of “blunt-force trauma,” police said.

Pava LaPere.pavamarie via Instagram

Police said Tuesday they had issued an arrest warrant for Jason Billingsley on first-degree murder and additional charges.

Officials said Billingsley, 32, of Baltimore, should be considered armed and dangerous.

"This individual will kill, and he will rape," Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley warned Tuesday afternoon at a news conference. "He will do anything he can to cause harm."

In 2015, Billingsley was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 16 years suspended, after he pleaded guilty to a first-degree sex offense, court records show.

The Maryland sex offender registry shows he was released from prison in October. The registry classified him in "tier 3," which includes the most serious charges and requires offenders to register for life.

The prosecutor in the 2015 case did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Billingsley's public defender could not immediately be reached.

Relatives identified in public records as Billingsley's mother and sister did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Court records show Billingsley also pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in 2009 and second-degree assault in 2011.

The police Special Investigations Section is working to determine whether Billingsley is linked to any other cases, police said.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Billingsley should not have been free.

"There is no way in hell that he should have been out on the street," Scott said. "When the police go out and do their job, as they did in this case ... and the state's attorney goes out and does their work, gets the conviction, the conviction should be the conviction.

"We are tired of talking about the same people committing the same kind of crimes over and over again."

Officials did not provide details about a possible motive in LaPere's death or any possible relationship between her and Billingsley.

Scott, who said he had gotten to know LaPere in recent years, called her “young, talented” who was “devoted” to the city.

A missing person report had been filed not long before LaPere was discovered dead late Monday morning, police said.

In a written statement Tuesday night, LaPere's family said she was an inspiration to many.

"She was driven, creative, hard working and relentless in her efforts, with her wonderful team at EcoMap Technologies," her family said. "Pava made an impact in every endeavor she undertook and on every life she touched. She will be forever missed as a daughter, sister, grand-daughter, niece, cousin and loyal friend."

LaPere’s firm, EcoMap Technologies, positions itself as a company that uses technology to "digitize ecosystems, ensuring anyone can easily access the information they need, so ecosystems can be as equitable, efficient, & effective as possible.”

In a statement, EcoMap Technologies said the circumstances surrounding LaPere's death were "deeply distressing" and that she "was not only the visionary force behind EcoMap but was also a deeply compassionate and dedicated leader.”

In its "30 Under 30" feature for 2023, Forbes said that LaPere, a Johns Hopkins graduate, had a team of 30 and that her clients included the Aspen Institute, Meta, the WXR Fund and the T. Rowe Price Foundation.

Worley, the police commissioner, pleaded with Billingsley to stop running and turn himself in.

"If you’re out there watching ... every single police officer in Baltimore city, in the state of Maryland, as well as U.S. marshals, are looking for you," Worley said. "We will find you ... and then we will turn it over to the state’s attorney to prosecute you to the fullest. So please turn yourself in."

Antonio Planas


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: baltimore; maryland
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To: oil_dude

She may have lost money, but she probably gained in terms of personal safety.


41 posted on 09/27/2023 9:30:05 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Red Badger

She voted for the crime.


42 posted on 09/27/2023 9:30:15 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Red Badger

But...but...but the far left liberals “jugheads” are doing such a marvelous job. They put the guilty perps ahead of the innocent victims. Too shickenchit to put criminals in jail these days. They’d prefer to lock up the victims.


43 posted on 09/27/2023 9:32:35 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (And the invasion of America continues while the RAT Party worries about the Ukraine.)
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To: cgbg

Lol probably accurate.


44 posted on 09/27/2023 9:36:40 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: Red Badger

SHOCKING!

A small price to pay on the way to elevating BLACK men to godlike status.

Thanks for the contribution, knowing or unknowing, young lady.


45 posted on 09/27/2023 9:36:55 AM PDT by LeonardFMason
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To: DariusBane

“I am no closer to understanding what EcoMap does.”

**************

Obfuscating the purpose of a business seems to be a trendy thing. Its as if their profiles were written by one of those multi-column buzz word generators (updated to reflect woke themes).

Peter Lynch once said he wouldn’t invest in any company whose business couldn’t be illustrated with a crayon. He knew that lots of fancy verbiage was just a smoke screen for a dubious business model.


46 posted on 09/27/2023 9:40:15 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: DariusBane

“I still have no idea what the product is or how it makes money or what it does.”

*************

That’s why lots of companies with dubious business models will go out of business come the next recession.


47 posted on 09/27/2023 9:42:35 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: ConservativeMind

“She voted for the crime.”

*************

And a raft of other city destroying policies no doubt.


48 posted on 09/27/2023 9:43:56 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: Starboard

She raised 7 million bucks so says the article. Astonishing really.


49 posted on 09/27/2023 9:46:17 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: Red Badger

Oddly enough, no mention of race.


50 posted on 09/27/2023 9:46:27 AM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: DesertRhino

Charlie Kirk just stated that she was a BIG supporter of BLM...sad she had to learn the hard way.


51 posted on 09/27/2023 9:48:10 AM PDT by who knows what evil? (Yehovah saved more animals than people on the ark...siameserescue.org)
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To: Alberta's Child

What the Hell does that have to do with the black underclass being perpetual criminal thugs?


52 posted on 09/27/2023 9:48:57 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: Midwesterner53

Oddly enough, no mention of race.


The victim looks white.

And it was Baltimore.

Any other questions?


53 posted on 09/27/2023 9:49:26 AM PDT by Hieronymus
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
I refuse to buy into this idiocy that a perpetual underclass of thugs in an urban dump is somehow a problem for U.S. taxpayers to deal with.

You really want to take on the cost of imprisoning quasi-humanoid mutants in Baltimore just because the local and state prosecutors refuse to do their damn jobs?

54 posted on 09/27/2023 9:59:48 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: Hieronymus

And it was Baltimore.

Any other questions?

*************

Baltimore is dangerous and dysfunctional that immigrants are probably avoiding it.


55 posted on 09/27/2023 9:59:49 AM PDT by Starboard
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To: DariusBane
Complete, Leftist gobbledygook. I'd be willing to bet that this company has received taxpayer dollars due to their wokeness.
56 posted on 09/27/2023 10:00:18 AM PDT by Major Matt Mason (To solve the Democrat problem, the RINO problem must first be solved.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Agreed. Let the Marylanders deal with their own, and if they don’t like Baltimore, annex it to D.C.

Lucky them, they got one city off their hands.

What are the tax rates in Zambia?


57 posted on 09/27/2023 10:03:22 AM PDT by Hieronymus
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To: Major Matt Mason

I wonder if they can show any revenue what so ever?


58 posted on 09/27/2023 10:04:41 AM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deo et Vives)
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To: Blurb2350

Looks like a “Woke” company. The victim must have let her guard down, thinking she was being nice. Her killer wasn’t looking for, “nice,” he was looking to rape and kill.

It sounds like the prosecutor needed to close a rape case and made a deal that ended in murder.

When will they stop doing this???

There are more black inmates because they commit more crimes.
There is no “fair” way to treat them. The bad ones don’t play that game.

Unfiltered behavior, from an early age, is not their curse, it is ours.


59 posted on 09/27/2023 10:08:43 AM PDT by BatGuano (2020 = Stolen Election. Believe it! Molon Labe.)
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To: Major Matt Mason

I’d be willing to bet that this company has received taxpayer dollars due to their wokeness.


I’d be surprised if the majority of the funding wasn’t directly or indirectly public.


60 posted on 09/27/2023 10:08:45 AM PDT by Hieronymus
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