Billy Adams III

Introduction

Billy Adams III is a 28-year-old Tampa rapper who performed as “Ace NH” and was convicted in September 2026 of two counts of first-degree murder in the January 30, 2023 killing of his girlfriend, 22-year-old Alana Sims, who was five months pregnant when he shot her to death in a remote area of New Tampa. Her unborn child also died. After a jury recommended death for the unborn child’s killing and life in prison for Sims’ murder, Adams filed a handwritten letter asking Circuit Judge Mark Wolfe to waive mitigation and sentence him to death at his December 1, 2026 Spencer hearing — an unusual, defendant-requested path to Florida’s death chamber .

Background Information

Adams built a modest local rap career in Tampa under the name “Ace NH.” On January 30, 2023, according to the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office, he lured Sims — the mother of a toddler — to a remote area of New Tampa near the Easton Park subdivision and shot her in the back of the head. Detectives found Sims lying dead on the street near her SUV, where her 18-month-old son was found asleep and unharmed inside the vehicle. Adams was arrested the following month. Three days before the killing, he had been acquitted of murder in a separate 2020 case in which his defense argued he acted in self-defense .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted; jury split; defendant seeks death. Adams was convicted in September 2026 of premeditated first-degree murder for Sims’ death and of killing an unborn child by injury to the mother. The jury recommended life without parole on the first count and death — by an 8-to-4 vote — on the second. His formal sentence is pending.

Prosecutors told the jury the murder was a plan to erase a pregnancy and an obligation: Adams believed Sims was carrying his child, and, in the words of a prosecuting attorney quoted by WFLA, “he wanted to eliminate a child he believed was his, a side piece girlfriend who he didn’t want around.” He shot Sims, who was five months pregnant, in the back of the head; investigators later determined the unborn child was not his. At trial, a former jail-mate of Adams and a former girlfriend testified, and jurors saw evidence from the days and hours before the murder. The jury convicted him on a Tuesday in September 2026 and, the next day, recommended life in prison for Sims’ murder and death for the killing of the unborn child .

Then came the twist that put the case back in the news. In a letter filed with the court on October 12, 2026, Adams told Circuit Judge Mark Wolfe: “I want to waive mitigation at this hearing and I want to be sentenced to death to what the jury voted to give me.” He added that he did “not have an issue with the death penalty” and had asked his lawyers to respect his wishes. Prosecutors seeking execution is ordinary; a convicted man filing his own handwritten request for it is not, and both Fox 13 and the New York Post framed their coverage around the letter .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The letter drew national attention precisely because defendants fight the death penalty, not for it. Tampa defense attorney Anthony Rickman, who is not involved in the case, told Fox 13 that the request is “not common” and speculated that some defendants see execution as closure rather than decades behind walls: “You’re not getting old and gray behind bars… there must be some mindset behind the fact that you have closure that your life is going to end.” The Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the open case but confirmed the move is uncommon. Sims’ family had told Tampa Bay reporters at the time of her death that she was five months pregnant; the case has remained one of Tampa Bay’s most closely followed murder prosecutions .

Current Status

Adams remains in the custody of the Hillsborough County jail pending his formal sentencing. A Spencer hearing — the proceeding at which Judge Wolfe hears final arguments and imposes the actual sentence — is set for December 1, 2026. The judge is not bound by Adams’ letter or by the jury’s split recommendation: he will still weigh the mitigation the defense presented during the penalty phase before choosing between life without parole and death, and it is not clear whether he will grant the request to waive mitigation entirely. Either way, the conviction on both first-degree murder counts stands .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Whatever music career “Ace NH” might have had ended with his arrest in February 2023; the conviction forecloses anything further. The case now sits inside Florida’s record-setting modern execution pace — the state had put 18 people to death in 2026 through the date of the New York Post’s report, after a record 19 in 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center — and a defendant asking to join that number has made the December 1 hearing a national curiosity. For Sims’ family, the hearing is the last station of a three-year prosecution over a killing that took a 22-year-old mother, the child she was carrying, and very nearly the toddler who was found asleep in her SUV .

Sources

NY Post, “Florida rapper who killed girlfriend and unborn child makes jaw-dropping request to judge,” October 23, 2026 — source
FOX 13 Tampa Bay, “Tampa rapper convicted of murder requests death sentence in letter to judge,” October 2026 — source
WTSP 10 Tampa Bay, “Jury says Tampa rapper should be sentenced to death for killing unborn child,” September 2026 — source
WFLA, “Tampa man convicted of killing then-pregnant girlfriend seeks death sentence in letter to judge,” October 21, 2026 — source
Tampa Bay 28, “Tampa rapper convicted of murder asks judge for death sentence,” October 2026 — source