Derrick Ballin’s Family Waits for Justice
Derrick Ballin was murdered one year ago on December 29, 2009, and his loved ones say they’re still waiting for justice. Police say the 53-year-old man was killed by his own wife in their Lithonia home.
Ballin’s family and his accused wife’s attorney say they have had to wait too long for justice. His
Family spent part of the day on Wednesday at Ballin’s gravesite in Stockbridge, reminiscing over the good times from his life in Georgia and back in Jamaica. They even shared a few laughs, but they say what still leaves them heartbroken is the pursuit of justice after his own wife was charged with killing him.
Louise Ballin, Derrick’s mother, says her son’s murder haunts her every day. Loved ones called him Ricky. They flew in from New York and Boston to mark the first anniversary of his death, allegedly at the hands of his own wife, Pamela Ballin.
On December 29, 2009, Pamela Ballin called DeKalb County police to the couple’s Lithonia home, saying men who broke into the house savagely beat her husband. A month later, she was charged with murder and making false statements to police.
Ballin’s oldest son says the ordeal has left his heartbroken family in limbo. The family questions why there has been no indictment in the case, and so does Pamela Ballin’s defense attorney.
Officials from the DeKalb district attorney’s office declined to comment on camera, but they did issue a statement responding to the defense attorney and the Ballin family’s questions about why there’s been no indictment 11 months after Pamela Ballin was charged with her husband’s murder.
The statement read in part, “We are still actively working and investigating this case to ensure justice is served. We will decide whether to move forward with an indictment or a dismissal after a thorough, proper and complete investigation.”
Pamela Ballin’s attorney says the evidence from the crime scene proves her story about a deadly home invasion was true. He says Pamela Ballin is grieving for her husband just as much as his family members are.
Him wife a Jamaican to…fi di love of money dem say
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Updated: 4:55 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010
Wife killed husband, faked home invasion, detective says
By Bill Rankin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Lithonia woman killed her husband and then staged a home invasion to make it look as if he was killed by intruders, a DeKalb County police detective testified Tuesday.
Pamela Ballin killed her husband, Derrick “Ricky” Ballin, by smashing him on the back of the head with a large statue that had been on a coffee table in the living room, Det. F.J. Renauld said.
Pamela Ballin’s motive was a $750,000 life insurance policy she had recently taken out on her husband, coupled with his decision to divorce her because of her affairs and because he believed she was taking money out of their business account, the detective said. The couple owned At Your Service Lawn Care & Landscaping and lived in the upscale Stoneleigh subdivision.
DeKalb police initially suspected the 53-year-old landscaper was killed by home invaders on Dec. 29 when his wife called 911 at about 2:15 a.m. saying she heard intruders downstairs with her husband.
But when detectives later listened to the entire 911 call, they heard her exclaim about her husband only when she opened the door to let police inside. Ballin would have had to have crossed over her husband, who was lying on the floor with a gaping wound in his head, before she got to the door, Renauld said. While on the 911 call, he said, “she didn’t seem upset.”
After her husband had been taken to the hospital and doctors called asking for permission to allow them to attempt life-saving surgery, Pamela Ballin told them to wait until she finished giving police her statement and drove to the hospital, Renauld said.
Detectives concluded that Ballin staged the home invasion because marks made on the back door could not have forced entry through the door. And furniture that was overturned in the house was set down gently “so as not to cause any damage,” Renauld said.
At the close of the hearing, a DeKalb magistrate found probable cause to continue holding Ballin, 48, at the jail on charges she murdered her husband and gave false statements to police.
she played it wrong,if u gettin 750.000 and u lay ur shit down with out damaging it.. She stupid.she shud of tore that place up…she has her life time to think about that in prison