The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has announced it is charging seven people in connection with two shootings that took place at the Columbia Correctional Institution in Lake City in March.
The FDLE said two men, Deshandre Billups and Kirk Cartwright, intentionally shot themselves inside the prison in an effort to sue the Department of Corrections and have their sentences reduced.
But Bay News 9 has now learned of a surprising turn of events in this investigation.
Tampa Police arrested the mother of Deshandre Billups Tuesday morning and she’s now being held at the Orient Road Jail on no bond on 10 counts of bringing contraband into a correctional facility.
The State says Billups spoke with her son and text messaged him 10 times in the days leading up to the shootings. The last text, they say, happened just two hours before the shootings took place.
This story began making headlines when Bay New 9 was the first television station to interview Joanne Billups in March.
Billups told us at that time that her son had been shot in prison but she wasn’t getting any answers about his medical condition.
“As of today, I don’t know anything,” said Billups back on March 26th. “Only thing I know my son’s been shot.”
Tampa attorney Grady Irvin, Jr. later went to the Columbia Correctional Facility in Lake City to check on her son, Deshandre, and another inmate, Kirk Cartwright.
Now, three months later, the FDLE says this was an elaborate plan where the two inmates conspired to get money by wanting to sue the Department of Corrections.
Meantime, investigators said the pair routinely smuggled cell phones and drugs into the prison through the mail and allegedly conspired to get the weapon inside, as well.
The Tampa attorney who visited Billups’ son in prison to make sure he and the other inmate were ok said he’s stunned by the FDLE’s findings.
"The suggestion seems to be that it was done for purposes of monetary gain,” said attorney Grady Irvin, Jr. “So go find me one case in the United States where this has ever happened before and if you find that case, let me know about it. Otherwise, it's a shock to the conscience.”
The FDLE says the four other people who allegedly took part in the scheme are all family members or friends of Billups and Cartwright.
Two of them are still at large.
Meantime, Irvin says there are many questions left to be answered in this investigation, especially when it comes to the family members of the two alleged ringleaders.
"It doesn't say that they were involved in arranging, organizing, or conspiring to carry out whatever happened with the shooting,” said Irvin. “It doesn't say that. I don't read it that way."
Officials said Joanne Billiups will be transported from here to the state prison in Lake City sometime soon. That’s the same place where her son is now serving a 20-year sentence.
We spoke with her sister off-camera and she told us she didn’t want to comment on the arrest.
Meantime, an FDLE spokesperson told us the investigation is ongoing and more arrests could be on the way.