State District Judge Robb Catalano has sentenced a 42-year-old Fort Worth man to 15 years in prison for having unprotected sex with a woman and infecting her with HIV.
Jimmy Bernard Billingsley pled guilty earlier this year to aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and elected to have state Judge Catalano assess his punishment.
He faced from probation to 20 years in prison.
On Friday, Catalano assessed the 15-year prison term after reviewing a pre-sentence investigation report and hearing testimony from several witnesses, including the defendant. During the hearing, the Judge heard Billingsley had been intimate on numerous occasions with a woman he met in 2009 while coaching her son’s youth football team.
In late 2010, the woman learned she was HIV positive after a routine health exam and immediately contacted police.
Because Billingsley was the only man with whom she had been intimate, she suspected that he had infected her with the virus after he insisted on having unprotected sex.
When detectives contacted Billingsley, he divulged that he has known since 2008 that he is HIV positive.
During the hearing on Friday, Billingsley took the stand and testified in his own defense. On cross-examination by prosecutor Joshua Ross, Billingsley admitted that he has had numerous sexual partners since his 2008 diagnosis and that he did not divulge to them that he was HIV positive.
The case was handled by Ross and Assistant District Attorneys Rebecca McIntire and Kalere Jacob Coleman.
“This defendant’s intentional non-disclosure to numerous sex partners was egregious, dangerous, willfull and malicious,” said Assistant District Attorney Joshua Ross. “He is truly a snake in the grass. His sentence brings some justice to his known victim and provides a measure of protection for so many others.”
2008 and still was sleeping with innocent woman omy he needs to be under the jail.
Im not blaming the woman, but you have to ask yourself “How can a man make you sleep with him without a condom, unless he’s raping you” My point is that the woman that was infected says that “she had sex with him after he insisted on having unprotected sex” thats crazy she could of said no. Im glad that he’s been sent to jail, but people have to be very careful, you can.t just take someone’s word that they don.t have any diseases, your are playing russian roulette, everytime you have sex without protection. It only takes you 1 time to sleep with an infected person to damage your health, and shorten your life span, just because of a quick romp. If your gonna screw around no problem, but use protection, because you could get infected and pass it onto someone else, and end up in jail.