BALTIMORE — The first of two trials for a 33-year-old man accused in a pair of grisly crimes that rattled Baltimore last fall is slated to begin with jury selection Monday.

Law enforcement authorities claim Jason Billingsley broke into a home in West Baltimore’s Upton neighborhood in September, restrained a couple at gunpoint, sexually assaulted the woman and set both people on fire three days before strangling and bludgeoning tech entrepreneur Pave LaPere to death.

Prosecutors have filed notice of their intent to seek a sentence of life without the possibility of parole in each case, if they secure convictions against Billingsley on the most serious charges.

He is scheduled to stand trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court first in the home invasion case in which he is charged with attempted first-degree murder, first- and second-degree rape, first-degree assault and false imprisonment.

Billingsley’s attorney, public defender Jason Rodriguez, did not respond to a request for comment.

According to charging documents, the woman Billingsley is charged with sexually assaulting told authorities she heard a loud banging noise in the early morning of Sept. 19, 2023. There was a man at her door who identified himself as a maintenance worker, according to charging documents, kicked in the door and pointed a gun at the woman and her boyfriend.

The woman said the assailant duct-taped her and handcuffed her boyfriend before raping her repeatedly and slashing her neck with a knife, detectives wrote in charging documents. The assailant then poured liquid on the couple and set them — and their basement apartment — ablaze.

Medics took the woman to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center and the man to the burn center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Charging documents say they both sustained second- and third-degree burns. Another unidentified person also was injured. Fire officials estimated that the blaze caused $15,000 in damage.

Detectives wrote that they found “fruits of the crime” in a backpack found in the bushes in the backyard of the Upton rowhouse.

In the black and lime green backpack, investigators found a serrated knife, rolls of duct tape, several pieces of used tape with hair on them, handcuffs, a hooded sweatshirt and condom wrappers, charging documents say. Next to the backpack, they found a bleach container, a gas can and a lighter.

Detectives wrote in charging documents that they identified Billingsley through security footage from the day of the break-in, which showed him wearing a mask, and the day before, when Billingsley was pictured “fixing things, doing yard work, and walking inside of the location.”

The woman’s boyfriend also identified Billingsley from a photo array.

The man and woman Billingsley is accused of attacking, April Hurley and Jonte Gilmore, sued him and the companies that employed him as a building maintenance worker. The Baltimore Sun typically does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent, but Hurley and her lawyers held a news conference to announce the suit.

On Sept. 25, 2023, six days after police say Billingsley broke into the Upton rowhouse, Baltimore police responded to an apartment building in Mount Vernon where someone found a woman’s body on the roof, bloodied with “apparent head trauma,” officials said. It was LaPere, a tech entrepreneur of local renown, and medics immediately declared her dead.

Homicide detectives pored over security footage from the apartment building. According to charging documents, video showed LaPere enter the building’s lobby around 11:30 p.m. Sept. 22 and later let a man wearing a gray hoodie, who waved her to the front door, inside. Detectives watched as they got onto an elevator together.

Later, detectives wrote of the footage, the “male suspect can be seen leaving the stairwell into the lobby with his gray hooded sweatshirt in his hand scrambling for an exit. The Black male located the front door and could see him (sic) wiping his right hand on his shorts before exiting the building.”

Police used departmental databases and a witness’ review of the security video to identify Billingsley, according to charging documents. He is charged with first-degree murder and with wielding a deadly weapon with the intent to injure another. Detectives noted that there was a brick next to LaPere’s body.

Billingsley is set to stand trial on charges stemming from LaPere’s death immediately after his first trial concludes. A separate jury will be selected to hear that case.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Robert K. Taylordenied a request by Billingsley to exclude video of his police interrogation from the murder trial, meaning prosecutors likely will play the two-hour video in court.

News of the 26-year-old entrepreneur’s killing sent shock waves throughout Baltimore last fall, hitting especially close to home in the city’s tight-knit tech scene, where LaPere was regarded as a leader. The Johns Hopkins University graduate’s death also inspired bills in the Maryland General Assembly, one of which, proponents argued, could prevent attacks like hers.

In 2015, Billingsley was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with all but 14 years behind bars suspended, for a first-degree sex offense. He was released early in October 2022 after earning diminution, or “good time,” credits while incarcerated.

One of the bills put forth in LaPere’s honor will prohibit people convicted of first-degree rape from earning diminution credits. Signed into law by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, that law takes effect Oct. 1.

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