BALTIMORE (TCN) — Two tenants who were bound with duct tape and then set on fire at their apartment complex have been awarded $21.5 million after a jury held the landlords liable for hiring the convicted sex offender who attacked them.
April Hurley and Jonte Gilmore were attacked in their home on Sept. 19, 2023, The Associated Press reported at the time. Jason Billingsley posed as a maintenance worker to gain access to the Baltimore apartment building. According to a warrant obtained by the outlet, Billingsley pointed a gun at Hurley and Gilmore, who lived in the home, and then restrained them with duct tape. He reportedly raped Hurley several times, slashed her throat with a knife, and then set both people on fire after dousing them with an accelerant.
Billingsley then killed a local tech CEO, Pava LaPere, 26, a few days later. He was charged with first-degree murder in her death. He had been released from prison for a 2013 rape less than a year before the attacks, according to the AP.
In April 2024, Hurley and her legal team announced a lawsuit against Billingsley, the company that owns the apartment building, and the company that manages the building, WBFF reports.
On Nov. 25, Attorney Malcolm P. Ruff announced the verdict, stating that a Baltimore City jury awarded both victims a $21.5 million verdict against Eden Homes LLC and Property Pals LLC for failing to do a background check on Billingsley.
Ruff said, “Landlords cannot and will not be allowed to ignore their duty to keep their tenants safe, to make every effort that they possibly can reasonably to ensure the safety of the people that put food in their mouths and put clothes on their back.”
Billingsley is currently serving three life sentences for the murder of LaPere and the attack on Hurley and Gilmore.
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