In recent criminal court sentencing hearings, an attempted first-degree murderer and an arsonist will have to wait a little longer to receive their sentences.
Andrew Billings, 31, stood trial on August 14 and was found guilty of attempted first-degree murdered. He remains behind bars in the Robertson County Jail, where he has been held, without bond pending a sentencing hearing in DeKalb County Criminal Court which was first set for September 20 before being re-scheduled to December 10 and now February 21, 2020.
Billings was accused of slitting the throat of his wife, Adriana with a long kitchen knife before leaving her by the side of Allen Ferry Road in the Ragland Bottom area on April 4, 2017.
Although Billings did not deny the knife attack, his defense was that he was on meth at the time and that he took out his rage on Adriana thinking she had turned over to authorities a recording of a statement he made implicating himself in a meth case.
Billings’ attorney Brandon Cox argued that Billings’ use of meth in the days leading up to the assault made him paranoid and agitated and rendered him incapable of premeditation. State prosecutors countered that Billings’ actions proved that he had planned the attack on Adriana and that his use of meth could not be an excuse for committing such a horrific crime.
As a Class A felony the range of punishment for this offense is from 15-25 years.
Billings also has other charges pending against him including aggravated child abuse, neglect, endangerment of a child eight or younger and initiation of a process to manufacture methamphetamine.
Gary Wayne Ponder, 55, was scheduled for sentencing Tuesday but the case has been delayed until February 3 in Criminal Court.
Ponder was convicted in July for setting fire in a courthouse vestibule recycling bin on June 14, 2016 causing more than $100,000 in damage to the building.
After hearing several hours of testimony, it took a jury less than half an hour to deliver a guilty verdict for aggravated arson.
The range of punishment for this Class-A felony offense is from 15-25 years.
Ponder had been scheduled for sentencing Friday, September 20 but the hearing was reset for December 10 and has now been delayed again until February 3, 2020. He remains incarcerated at the jail.
