Man convicted of murdering ex-roommate in ‘revenge’ for stolen PlayStation.
Jake Bilotta, 26, was convicted by a jury Friday of first-degree for the 2018 killing of Joshua Barnes, 24, in Maitland, reported WESH.
Bilotta received a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after the court rejected his self-defense claims.
Bilotta’s other roommate Ian McClurg, 25, testified against him during the trial after pleading guilty in 2020 to accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma previously said that Bilotta and McClurg concocted a plan to lure Barnes to their home after suspecting him of stealing a $300 PlayStation 4 game console several days earlier.
Bilotta was so “aggravated” when he found out about the theft, according to Lemma, that he punched a hole in the wall and decided to kill Barnes.
When Barnes arrived at the home at his former roommates’ invitation, ostensibly to go to a party together, Lemma said Bilotta stabbed him 17 times with a 7-inch chef’s knife.
“You’re killing me,” Barnes was quoted by McClurg, who witnessed the stabbing, as yelling out during the deadly attack.
According to prosecutors, the plan was for Billota and McClurg to place Barnes’ body into garbage bags and bury it somewhere, but the plot swiftly unraveled when another roommate returned home from a date and caught them red-handed inside the blood-spattered residence.
Bilotta said he had to “give the f—er credit. He put up a good fight,” according to the arrest report obtained by The Post.
McClurg was arrested by deputies inside a bathroom. Bilotta fled but was quickly tracked down by a police helicopter to a parking lot a mile away from the crime scene.
During his trial, Bilotta took the stand and testified that Barnes’ killing was in self-defense after he allegedly reached for the knife that Bilotta said he had been using to chop up marijuana, WFTV reported.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” Bilotta told the court, arguing that Barnes overreacted seeing the knife in his hand and escalating the situation by trying to attack him.
After their arrests, McClurg told police that the victim used to live with them but was “kicked out” because he wasn’t paying rent and left the door unlocked. He said a “smoking device” and PlayStation 4, both belonging to Bilotta, were also missing — and Barnes allegedly admitted to stealing the items in a text conversation with another person.
Per the arrest report (via Law&Crime), McClurg told cops Bilotta “became very upset and punched a hole in the wall” after learning his belongings were missing. He then allegedly began texting Barnes, “baiting” him to come back to the home with the promise of a party. McClurg said that 30 minutes before Barnes arrived, “Jake discussed a plan with Ian to kill Josh.”
McClurg claimed he sat on a couch with the intention to “prevent Josh from leaving” once he arrived. When he did show up, he also said Bilotta “answered the door with a large knife in his hand” and started “stabbing Josh repeatedly” — as he heard the former roommate yell, “You’re killing me.”
As they began to put Barnes’ dead body into kitchen bags and planned to bury him another roommate, Walter Johnson, came home and reportedly found the place covered in blood and Bilotta next to Barnes’ body. Per Johnson, Bilotta allegedly said of Barnes that he had to “give the f—er credit, he put up a good fight.”
Johnson is the one who called police, with Bilotta fleeing the scene before police arrived. Body camera footage of his arrest showed him claiming “[Barnes] tried to stab me with a knife.”
On the stand last week, Bilotta reportedly claimed he was chopping up marijuana with a knife when Barnes arrived and he opened the door holding the weapon. He said that after seeing the knife, Barnes attacked him, things went “0 to 100” and Bilotta stabbed him in self defense.
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