TAMPA, FLA. — A Tampa rapper convicted of killing his girlfriend and her unborn child in 2023 has asked a judge to sentence him to death.
A jury in September recommended the death penalty for Billy Adams III on one of two first-degree murder counts in the killings of 22-year-old Alana Sims and her unborn child.
Adams wrote a letter to Circuit Judge Mark Wolfe, filed Oct. 12, asking the judge to sentence him to death.
For Count 1, premeditated first-degree murder in Sims' death, the jury recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For Count 2, killing an unborn child by injury to the mother, also a first-degree murder charge, the jury recommended the death penalty.
A Spencer hearing is set for Dec. 1, when Wolfe is expected to decide Adams' sentence.
“I want to waive mitigation at this hearing and I want to be sentenced to death to what the jury voted to give me,” Adams wrote.
Sims was found dead near her car in a New Tampa neighborhood on Jan. 30, 2023. Police found her 18-month-old child sleeping inside the vehicle. The toddler was not injured.
Adams was arrested in the case in February 2023. Just three days before Sims was killed, he had been acquitted of murder in a separate 2020 case in which his defense argued that he acted in self-defense.
“I don’t have an issue with the death penalty and I have asked my lawyers to respect my wishes when we go to court,” Adams wrote.
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