Authorities identified 32-year-old Jason Dean Billingsley, of West Baltimore, as the suspect in the killing of the well-known tech entrepreneur Pava LaPere in Mount Vernon.

When acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley named Billingsley the suspect, he warned that the man was dangerous.

“This individual will kill and he will rape,” Worley said at a news conference. “He will do anything he can to cause harm. Please be aware of your surroundings.”

Police announced a $6,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

Court records show Billingsley is a registered sex offender with three criminal convictions. He’s currently wanted on four arrest warrants related to allegations that he violated terms of his release as a sex offender, stole a handgun in Baltimore County, raped a woman and attempted to kill a couple in West Baltimore last week, and killed the 26-year-old LaPere.

Billingsley’s most serious criminal conviction came in 2013. In June of that year, police were called to the emergency room at the University of Maryland Medical Center because a woman had been sexually assaulted.

She told police that a man named “Jason” had forced her to perform oral sex inside a home on the 600 block of North Carrollton Avenue in West Baltimore. According to court records, the woman told detectives that she left her boyfriend’s home around 1 a.m. after an argument with him. While she sat on the steps of a vacant home to collect her thoughts, a man she knew only as “Jason” walked up and asked her what was wrong.

He offered to let her stay with him. The man, “Jason,” told her that he locked his keys inside the house and she’d have to climb through the window and open the front door for him.

They later went to a bedroom, she told police, and the man said he wanted to have sex with her, according to court records. The woman told him she wanted to leave.

He hit her in the face, put both hands around her neck, and started to squeeze, she told police. He threatened her that she was going to do what he said or else he’d shoot her, according to court records.

She told police that he forced her to perform oral sex and took $53 from her wallet. When she left, he warned her, “You better not tell anyone about this. My aunt is a police officer. No one will believe you,” according to court records.

A medical examiner found the woman had bruises on her lips and redness and tenderness on her neck. Her right eye was red and contained pools of blood, police reported. Her left eye showed signs of hemorrhaging.

Detectives identified the man as Jason Billingsley and showed the woman a photo array. She identified him, too. Billingsley was charged with eight counts including second-degree assault, attempted rape, false imprisonment and armed robbery. A year and a half later, in February 2015, he pleaded guilty to first-degree sex offense in exchange for 30 years in prison with about half suspended. He was released in October 2022.

Criminal defendants typically serve about two-thirds of their sentence behind bars in the state court system.

Court records show two additional criminal cases against Billingsley.

In September 2010, a woman pressed charges against him, claiming that he assaulted her. According to court records, she reported that Billingsley came to her apartment and asked for money. She told him no, and he started yelling and fussing while she continued cooking.

Billingsley, she said, started cursing and pushing her. She reported that she pushed him back, and then he hit her in the face and pinned her down. The woman stated that she told him to get off and asked for her phone. She said she suffered scratches on her forehead and a knot over her eye. Billingsley pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to two years in prison.

At the time of the plea, in June 2011, Billingsley was under supervision from an assault case two years prior.

In that case, a man with a bloody nose approached officers in September 2009 in Carrollton Ridge. The officers also noticed two other men, one of them Billingsley, walking away from the scene, according to court records.

Police arrested the two men, searched Billingsley, and found $10 in his pocket, according to court records. Billingsley pleaded guilty in December 2009 to first-degree assault, and received a suspended sentence and two years of probation.

tim.prudente@thebaltimorebanner.com