Two Held on Murder Charges in Killing of Fla. Parents

July 12, 2009 — -- Two men were arrested on murder charges tonight in the killings of a Florida couple who were shot in what investigators said was a surprisingly rapid crime apparently carried out by experienced killers, police said.

Byrd "Bud" Billings and Melanie Billings of Beulah, Fla., a rural area west of Pensacola, Fla., near the Alabama border, were shot to death Thursday as their adopted special needs children slept in the house.

At a news conference late this even, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said Wayne Coldiron and Leonard P. Gonzalez Jr. were both charged with open murder.

Coldiron, a day laborer, turned himself in to police around 9 p.m. today, Morgan said. Gonzalez was arrested later in Santa Rosa County.

Earlier today, police arrested Leonard P. Gonzalez Sr., 56, on charges of tampering with evidence, for allegedly trying to disguise the red van police believe was used as the getaway vehicle. Gonzalez Sr. was held on $250,000 bond.

When ABC News called Gonzalez's house earlier today, no one picked up the phone and a recorded message from Gonzalez played.

Police said Gonzalez has a criminal past, but they did not give any further details.

Meanwhile, nine children who were living under the couple's care are recovering from the tragedy with relatives, a spokesman for the family said.

"They are surrounded by many family and friends," said John Markham, whose brother is married to the second oldest sister in the large family of the two victims.

In all, the Billings were parents of 16 children, many of them adopted kids with developmental disabilities.

"The [nine] children have not been separated nor will they be," Markham said Saturday. "They had a plan in place in the event [of] something happening to the parents. That plan will be fully executed to the best of the family's ability."

Police had asked local residents to be on the lookout for a red, late-1970s or early-'80s model van that was seen on the Billings' video surveillance system driving away from the scene of the crime.

A statement on the Escambia County Sheriff's Office said officials sought three white males spotted in the van, though police would not specify the suspects' gender in later comments.

Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said Saturday evening that tips from the public helped police find what they believed was the same van and its possible occupants.

"We are currently now are interviewing two persons of interest," Morgan said. "But again, the investigation, at this point, has been tied to the van that's in question."

Morgan said the rapidity of the crime and the video of the van suggested that the killers were experienced.

"It suggests experience to me," the sheriff said, "the rapidity of this crime -- in and out" of the couple's home.

But, he added, police "have yet to determine a reason for, specifically, why the Billings were targeted."

Police found the Billings' bodies shot multiple times after they were summoned to the sprawling house in a rural area shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday.

The well-to-do Billings raised adoptees, many born to drug-addicted mothers and some with Down syndrome, along with their four biological children from previous marriages, according to reports.

Several children -- police were quoted saying there were eight ranging in age from 8 to 14, while Markham said there were nine children living at the home ranging from 3 to 11 -- were found unharmed inside the house, some of them still asleep, authorities said. Police reportedly were responding to a 911 call by a neighbor.

Markham and the Billings' daughter, Ashely, who is married to Markham's brother, said they were certain no Billings kids were connected to the crime, and that there were no additional family members home at the time of the killing.

'Mommy and Daddy Got Shot and Killed'

The Billings owned several local businesses, including a financecompany and a used car dealership, The Associated Press reported.

In a published report, the couple said they started adopting the disadvantaged kids because they wanted to give back to society for their good fortune.

"Byrd and Melanie Billings, I believe, exemplified what is good and decent in society," Morgan told reporters Friday. "It only adds to the hatefulness and senselessness of this act, and I can tell you that our community has an outpouring as I speak for the deaths of these two individuals."

Outside the Billings home Saturday, someone left balloons and flowers in memory of the parents who were killed.

A family friend, school bus driver Yvonne Hahn, told the Pensacola News Journal she raced to the home after the killings and saw some of the kids as they left the house with a relative.

"They seemed all right, but they were upset," Hahn told the paper.

"Matthew told me that he didn't have a mom and daddy anymore because his mom and dad had got shot," Hahn told ABC News affiliate WEAR-TV in Pensacola. "I told him they'll always be your mom and dad, they just won't be here right now."

ABC News' Matt Gutman in Florida and The Associated Press contributed to this report.