By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
kmcneir@afro.com
On Sept. 19, 2023 April Hurley was spending time with a friend, Jonte Gilmore, in the room she was renting in a Baltimore boarding house when the maintenance man knocked on her door. He had discovered a leak.
What happened next changed her life forever.
After the maintenance man, Jason Billingsley, forced his way into her room and restrained her, Hurley was brutally assaulted, doused with gasoline, and then set afire alongside her guest, Gilmore, who was also restrained. Billingsley vacated the premises, probably believing that both of his victims would perish.
Miraculously, both Hurley and Gilmore survived.
Though their lives have been changed forever, the two recently received some type of compensation for the pain, suffering and anguish they’ve faced since that knock on the door. With the help of Malcolm P. Ruff, Esq., who led a team of talented attorneys from the Baltimore-based Murphy, Falcon, and Murphy, Hurley and Gilmore have secured an impressive victory.
(Photo courtesy of Murphy, Falcon, and Murphy.)
A jury has found Billingsley and two property companies, Eden’s Homes LLC and Property Pals LLC, guilty on all counts. Then they awarded $21.5 million to Hurley and Gilmore.
Still, Ruff said the pain his clients suffered and continue to experience could have been avoided if not for the ineptitude of the property owners and their total disregard for the safety of their tenants.
“This was a grueling two-plus years where we had to fight to make sure that justice was served,” Ruff said. “The jury issued a resounding message: landlords cannot and will not be allowed to ignore their duty to keep their tenants safe and make every effort to do so.”
Ruff was on a mission to hold the company that hired Billingsley accountable.
“They hired a repeat violence sex offender and utterly failed to vet him and do any background research on him. Because of their negligence, Billingsley was able to use his position as a maintenance person to lure April out of her apartment,” he said. “The jury let people know that in Baltimore, when you are entrusted with someone else’s life, you will be held accountable – you must meet your duty to every single tenant.”
Ruff and his associates held a press conference after the jury rendered its verdict during which Hurley spoke about her ordeal and the $10 million she will receive.
“It’s extremely hard to talk about what happened and when I had to share the details in front of the jury, I had flashbacks that brought back terrible memories,” she said. “But I feel like justice has been served and I am grateful to the jury.”
“No amount of money can change what happened, but it sends a message to the property management company and others that they must follow the standards in place when hiring people who will be around their tenants,” Hurley continued. “It feels good to know that I had a team that fought long, hard days and who were behind me and Jonte. They gave every effort to get this ruling.”
Ruff fears that justice in Baltimore is not always for all
Ruff said he believes that the landlord may have been negligent because of the rooming home’s location in West Baltimore.
“The rooming house was located in the ‘Black Butterfly’ on the other side of MLK, where folks making a profit from renovating houses and splitting them up into individual rooms,” said Ruff, referring to the term Dr. Lawrence Brown coined to describe the image that appears over the Black sections of East and West Baltimore when disparities are mapped out.
Ruff believes those responsible for hiring Billingsley “willfully and deliberately ignored their duty to April.”
In addition, Ruff still questions the initial steps taken by Baltimore law enforcement.
“In the case involving April and her friend, the crime was essentially considered as an arson investigation and from what we could gather, the police commissioner allegedly viewed the attack by Billingsley on her as either targeted or a robbery gone wrong – a statement he later retracted,” Ruff said.
Just days after attacking Hurley and Gilmore, Billingsley murdered Pava LaPere, an American businesswoman who was the founder and CEO of the tech startup EcoMap Technologies.
LaPere’s body was found on the roof of her Mount Vernon apartment building in late September 2023 after she was reported missing by friends. According to Ruff, investigators linked Billingsley to the murder through surveillance.
“Had a background check been done properly, perhaps Billingsley may not have been able to continue his string of horrendous acts,” said Ruff.
Billingsley pleaded guilty to first-degree murder to LaPere’s death in August 2024 and was sentenced to life in prison. Several days before his murder conviction for the death of LaPere, he pleaded guilty to the brutal attack on Hurley and Gilmore. He is serving three life sentences concurrently in both cases.
