Jason Billingsley tricked Pava LaPere to get into building: court

May 2024 · 3 minute read

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Tech CEO Pava LaPere appears to have been stalked home by her murderer — who then tricked her into letting him into her Baltimore building, where she was strangled and possibly battered with a brick, according to court documents.

After the 26-year-old celebrated CEO was found murdered on her roof Monday — left half-naked and with missing teeth by her body — detectives found surveillance footage of her last coming home just after 11:30 p.m. Friday, according to a charging document seen by The Post.

“After entering the building, the victim can be seen getting off the couch in the lobby and walking to the front door to a black male,” the affidavit said, identifying him as Jason Dean Billinglsey, 32, a paroled felon already being hunted for a rape two days earlier in which a couple were set on fire.

“The male then waved to the victim inside the lobby to come to the door.”

LaPere — a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree who was wearing a green shoulderless top with red pants and shoes — then “opens the lobby door and began to talk to” the man who waved her over, the document said.

Pava LaPere, 26, was found murdered on Monday. Instagram / Pava LaPere

He appears to have tricked her into letting him inside by pretending to have lost his keys, sources told CNN.

“The victim then let the tall” man “inside the building where they can be seen getting on the elevator together,” the affidavit said.

Earlier footage had also shown the same man following LaPere home, keeping enough of a distance for her not to notice, CNN’s sources said.

The same man was soon seen leaving the stairwell to the lobby and “scrambling for an exit” with the sweatshirt he’d earlier been wearing now in his hands, the affidavit said.

Jason Billingsley, 32, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the tech CEO’s killing. Baltimore PD/MEGA

He could be seen wiping his red hand on his shorts, the document said.

LaPere was found on her building’s roof “in the supine position half-clothed” with trauma to her face, head and body, the charging application noted.

“This crime scene consisted of a brick, blood, buttons, pants, 3 teeth, broken hair clip and a pair of red shoes” like those worn by the CEO when she arrived home, the document said.

The medical examiner determined she was killed Friday by strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Detectives IDed the suspect as Billingsley the next day — intensifying the manhunt for him that started soon after he was suspected in a horrific attack on a couple seven days earlier, on Sept. 19.

Billingsley is believed to have conned his way into LaPere’s apartment building. MEGA

A victim in that horror, Jonte Gilmore, 26, described how his attacker also tricked his way into their home — then repeatedly raped Gilmore’s girlfriend before setting both on fire.

Police did not appeal for help finding Billingsley, however, until LaPere’s murder — after which they warned he was likely “armed and dangerous” and someone who “will kill and he will rape.”

Billingsley was finally apprehended in Bowie, Maryland, late Wednesday on a slew of charges in both cases, including murder, attempted murder and rape.

The delay in appealing for help finding him sparked anger in the city, especially given Billingsley’s terrifying rap sheet.

Baltimore Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley defended his decision Thursday, saying officers thought they were close to capturing him and did not believe he would commit “random acts” before LaPere’s body was found.

“If I thought we made a mistake, I would tell you we made a mistake,” Worley said.

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