Sarah Perry Hilliard of the Clements community recalls the indelible day she learned her son was murdered in Limestone County.

In a fit of rage on Oct. 13, 1997, Brandon Keith Pratt, 20, of Athens, broke into the apartment of his 18-year-old estranged wife, Jessica Kilgore Pratt, in the Reid community west of Athens and shot her with a .30-30 deer rifle as she lay in bed. The couple had been separated six months and their divorce was pending at the time of the shooting.

Brandon also shot Jessica’s 19-year-old friend Billy “Bubba” Marshall Perry as he tried to flee across the neighbor’s backyard. Billy made it about 150 yards before he was shot, execution style, and died near the neighbor’s back door. Before leaving the scene, Brandon retrieved his then-22-month-old son from Jessica’s apartment and took him to his own parents home. That son is now about 20, Hilliard said.

On March 9, 2000, Brandon was convicted on two counts of capital murder and one count of first-degree burglary. A month later he was sentenced to serve three-consecutive life sentences with the possibility of parole. Since April 2000, Brandon has been serving his sentence in the Bibb County Correctional Facility in Brent. The March parole hearing will be Brandon’s second in his 18 years, five months and eight days of incarceration, which includes time served in county jail and state prison.

Parole hearing upcoming

Billy’s death weighs heavier on Hilliard’s mind these days because Brandon, now 38, is scheduled for a parole hearing before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles in Montgomery on March 22.

Hilliard and her husband, Ken, and her two daughters, Teresa Perry Hand and Duresa Perry Newton, along with members of Jessica’s family will go to Montgomery to speak against Brandon’s release. Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely, former Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls, Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones and members of a Florence group called VOCAL, which provides assistance to family members of those killed in violent crimes, will also attend the hearing, she said. Members of Brandon’s family may also attend to speak in favor of his release.

“It’s been a little over 18 years and this is the second parole hearing,” Hilliard said. Parole board members denied Brandon’s first request for supervised release in November 2010.

Hilliard said the family will go to the hearings, which are scheduled every five years, not only because they lost their son and brother but because they worry Brandon might kill again if released.

“There have been people who have gotten out who have gone out and killed people,” Hilliard said. “We don’t want anyone else to go through it; to be hurt. It is not just my family but multiple families, including his family, who have been hurt.”

Petition

Hilliard is asking anyone who remembers the murder or who knew Billy or Jessica to sign an online petition she has started and to then post it to Facebook, Twitter or other social media. The petition reads, in part, “Justice for Jessica and Billy (Bubba) cries from their graves. Justice also demands that Pratt spend the rest of his life behind bars.”

Petitions have also been placed in two locations in Athens — one at S&Z Market at 16321 Shaw Road and another at U.S. 72 and another at Geez Burger at 13951 Shaw Road, Athens.

The online petition can be found at: https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/please-deny-parole-to-brandon-k-pratt-march-22-2016.html.