By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com
A Sacramento Superior Court jury acquitted a man of murder Wednesday but found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a 27-year-old woman.
Roosevelt Latarius Billups testified in his trial that he had intended to commit suicide when he shot and killed Brittney Austin in her North Natomas apartment on May 14, 2008.
Austin's body was found on the sidewalk in front of her apartment at 4800 Kokomo Drive with a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Billups, 33, had described Austin as the "love of his life," according to Deputy District Attorney Donell Slivka's trial brief. But Austin had told her mother that she had met another man, the brief states.
Billups had initially told police he hadn't seen Austin for a week before she was killed but later admitted that he had gone to her house the morning of her death to kill himself.
"He said that he placed the gun to his head and the victim slapped his hand and the gun went off," Slivka's brief said.
Police found a shell casing on the floor of Austin's bathroom.
The prosecutor's trial brief said Austin had told her mother the night before her death that she had met another man and visited with him that day. She told her mother that "she really liked him."
Billups is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 27. by Judge Laurie M. Earl.
The defendant was represented in the case by Assistant Public Defender John Perkins.
Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.
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