ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The parents of slain Baltimore tech CEO Pava Marie LaPere shared their profound grief Tuesday while urging Maryland lawmakers to end good behavior credits for convicted rapists like the man charged with killing her.
Frank LaPere said no family should have to suffer the way theirs has since the September strangulation death of his 26-year-old daughter, who launched tech startup EcoMap Technologies several years earlier from her Johns Hopkins University dorm room.
“We know this because we have lived it, and we never want any other family to have to identify their daughter’s body, almost unrecognizable, again,” he said, adding that the pain and grief “is too much for a person to handle.”
The high-profile killing in Baltimore brought attention the accused’s criminal record and early release.
Jason Billingsley, who is charged with first-degree murder in LaPere’s death, was released from prison in October 2022 after serving a shortened sentence for a 2013 rape because he earned good behavior credits behind bars. Billingsley also was charged with two dozen counts in a Sept. 19 rape in which a woman and man were bound with duct tape before being set on fire, and police had been actively searching for him.