A Lake Charles man has been charged in connection with the July death of his ex-wife, authorities said Tuesday.
Billy Ray Harris, 38, was already jailed at the Calcasieu Correctional Center on drug charges.
He was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder in the death of 38-year-old Raymona L. Gilmore. She was found in her trailer
at Quailridge Mobile Estate Park, said Kim Myers, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.
Gilmore was found unresponsive in her home on July 29, Myers said.
Harris has been in jail on drug charges since the day before Gilmore’s body was found, she said.
“He had a pretty high bond on some drug
charges, so we knew he wasn’t going anywhere,” Sheriff Tony Mancuso
said. “We had
a lot of evidence that we needed to get back from the crime lab.
We had subpoenaed a lot of records — phone records, credit
card records. It just took a lot of time.”
Mancuso declined to say how Gilmore was killed.
He said the Sheriff’s Office did “everything we could to exclude (Harris), and it just keeps coming back to him.”
Judge Wilford Carter set Harris’ bond at $500,000, Myers said. His bond on the drug charges totaled $50,000.
“We still have a lot to do,” Mancuso
said. “We’ve only got one step made; we’ve made an arrest. Probable
cause and being able
to make an arrest is a long way from being able to get a
conviction. This is just one step, and now the process really begins.”