Apr 30, 2008 5:36 pm US/Pacific
Police: Biz Partner Paid To Kill San Ramon Man
SAN RAMON (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ―
Police said Tuesday they arrested the business partner of a San Ramon father of three who was found shot to death outside his bullet-ridden, smoldering BMW late Sunday night.
Reginald J. Robinson, 31, of El Sobrante, was jailed on a charge of solicitation of murder in the death of 42-year old Kashmir Billon. Robinson's bail was set at $1 million.
Police believe that Robinson, who partnered with Billon in the real estate industry, hired someone to shoot Billon. The gunman had not yet been arrested, Lt. Dan Pratt said.
An autopsy showed Billon died from a gunshot wound to the chest, the Contra Costa County coroner's office said earlier Tuesday.
Billon -- who would have turned 43 Wednesday -- was a mortgage lender who ran Billon Enterprises. Records show that he owned properties throughout the Bay Area and has filed numerous unlawful detainer - or eviction - lawsuits.
Robinson was booked into the Contra Costa County jail in Martinez late Monday night after police searched his home. Pratt declined to comment on what led police to Robinson or whether investigators had determined a motive.
"There's still a killer out there," Billon's brother Harv Billon said. He thanked the community for the support but said that his family still needed closure, and he urged anyone with information about his brother's murder to come forward.
Firefighters discovered Billon's body after responding to a report of a smoking car about 11 p.m. Sunday in the 2600 block of Bishop Drive in San Ramon's city industrial park.
Homicides are rare in San Ramon, with the last killing taking place on Christmas Eve of 2006. In that incident, a San Ramon man is awaiting trial after allegedly strangling his wife.
"Anytime there's a death, we take it very personally in San Ramon," said Mayor H. Abram Wilson, who offered his condolences to the Billon's family.
Wilson said the family was well-known in San Ramon. The mayor got to know them when Harv Billon came before the City Council to start the San Ramon Farmers Market.
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