ID is re-airing the Evil Lives Here investigation into the murder of Jonathan Lestelle by his girlfriend’s estranged husband, William “Billy” Keck, at an apartment in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the vicious attack, Keck also wounded his ex-wife Angelique Reyes and killed her 17-week-old fetus.
On November 3, 2008, Keck, dressed all in black with cargo pants and tactical boots and armed with an AK-47, went to Lestelle’s apartment, determined to kill the occupants. Prosecutors would later argue that Keck believed Lestelle’s 3-year-old son was also present, but thankfully, the youngster was staying with a relative.
Keck used a chainsaw to cut a hole in the apartment door. He then shot the door knob off and sprayed the interior with bullets.
He killed 26-year-old Lestelle and also murdered the fetus fathered by Lestelle with a single bullet. Keyes was hit multiple times but survived the attack.
Keyes had dialed 911 when Keck arrived, and the shooting was overheard by the operator. The recording captured the gunfire along with Reyes’s screams and a gurgling sound made by Lestelle as he passed away.
William Keck blamed mental health after shooting Jonathan Lestelle and Angelique Reyes
After the shooting, Keck returned to his apartment and crawled into bed beside his girlfriend. Incredibly, the twisted killer would later claim he was “deeply in love” with Keyes, whose life he had just destroyed. He was arrested about an hour after the shooting.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelKeyes was able to testify against her former husband and told the cops that he had already threatened to shoot her in the stomach, thereby killing her baby.
Keck’s legal team tried to claim he had a mental illness, but the prosecution argued that he was faking. He allegedly received a section 8 discharge from the army after he pretended to hear voices in his head.
However, even Keck’s lawyer, Jeff Banks, was sickened by his client’s actions. At one point in the trial, Banks asked, “How dare you, Billy Keck, do that to those people? What he did was horrible, terrible, and inexcusable, and no one in this room thinks otherwise.”
William Keck sentenced to death for killing Jonathan Lestelle
Keck was found guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and manslaughter of an unborn child.
In the penalty phase of the trial, Banks argued that his client should be spared death and given life without parole instead. He told a jury, “I’m asking you to lock Billy Keck up in a cage and throw away the key and let God decide when to take him out.”
Banks’s request was denied, and Keck was sentenced to death. He is currently incarcerated at the Ely State Prison in Ely, NV.
This episode of Evil Lives Here airs Thursday at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.