Billy Adams III, a Tampa rapper known as Ace NH, has sent a handwritten letter asking a Florida judge to sentence him to death for the 2023 killing of his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child.
The 28-year-old was convicted last month of first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Alana Sims and of killing an unborn baby by injury to the mother.
A jury recommended life without parole for Sims' murder but voted 8-4 in favor of the death penalty for the unborn baby's death.
Sims was found dead on January 30, 2023, in an unfinished section of the Easton Park subdivision in New Tampa.
She had been shot in the back of the head from roughly three feet away.
Sims' approximately 18-month-old son, Yazan, was asleep in a car seat inside her Ford EcoSport next to where she was killed and was unharmed. She was five months pregnant, with a baby she planned to name Leilani.
Prosecutors argued Adams lured her to the secluded spot under the pretense of a party celebrating his acquittal on double murder charges.
Three days earlier, on January 27, a jury had acquitted him of two first-degree murder charges in the 2020 shooting deaths of Trevon Albury and Daniel Thompson at a Lutz recording studio. Adams had claimed self-defense.
Instead, Adams murdered her because he was not ready to be a father and wanted to continue a relationship with another woman.
Text messages showed him telling the other woman the day before the killing that "Tomorrow this s— done" and that their future would not include Sims.
It was later determined Adams was not the biological father of the unborn child.
On October 12, Adams sent a letter to Tampa Circuit Judge Mark Wolfe ahead of a December 1 Spencer hearing.
In the letter, Adams stated he does not want his lawyers to present any further mitigation or arguments.
"[W]hen we go to court on December 1st, I want to be sentenced to what the jury already recommended during the penalty phase of the trial. I have already discussed everything with my lawyers and I told them I don't want any more mitigation or arguments being presented. I want to waive mitigation at this hearing and I want to be sentenced to what the jury voted to give me. … It is my decision to waive mitigation at this hearing and I'm writing to put this on the record."
Adams continued, according to a report from Court TV, "I don't have an issue with the death penalty, and have asked my lawyers to respect my wishes when we go to court."
He asked the court to sentence him to the jury's recommendation and said he had discussed the consequences of waiving mitigation with his attorneys.
Adams' request does not automatically impose a death sentence, and it will still be up to the judge to make the final determination.
Prosecutors have not publicly responded to the letter.
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