{"id":373667,"date":"2026-08-17T13:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373667\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T13:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T13:14:10","slug":"billy-adams-trial-jury-selection-begins-for-tampa-rapper-accused-of-killing-pregnant-girlfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/373667\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Adams trial: Jury selection begins for Tampa rapper accused of killing pregnant girlfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rapper \"Rapper <\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – Jury selection begins Monday in Tampa <\/a>for Tampa rapper Billy Adams, who faces first-degree murder charges for allegedly killing his pregnant girlfriend and her unborn child.<\/p>\n

Tampa rapper murder trial <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Court records show that in 2023, just three days after being acquitted in a separate double-murder case, Billy Adams lured 22-year-old Alana Sims to the Easton Park neighborhood in New Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: The case against Billy Adams: Court records show evidence gathered in young mother’s murder<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigators say Adams told Sims, who was five months pregnant, that they were heading to a party to celebrate his acquittal before shooting her. A neighbor later found Adams near Sims’ car while her toddler slept unharmed in the back seat.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

When cornered by law enforcement with surveillance video, Ring camera footage of his car and live ammunition found in his vehicle, Adams changed his story to claim self-defense. Adams told investigators that Sims pulled a gun on him, but he wrestled it away, shot her and threw the weapon away on his drive home. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case.<\/p>\n

Courtroom developments <\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

It remains unclear how long jury selection will take before opening arguments begin in Hillsborough County Court.<\/p>\n

Recording studio shooting acquittal <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

In a separate case in 2023, Adams was found not guilty by a Hillsborough County jury after claiming self-defense in the shooting deaths of two men at a recording studio.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: Billy Adams trial: Tampa rapper found not guilty of double murder in recording studio<\/a><\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from Hillsborough County court records, police reports detailing the 2023 investigation and previous FOX 13 broadcast coverage.<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Jury selection begins Monday in Tampa for Tampa rapper Billy Adams, who faces first-degree murder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-373667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}