6 NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 6, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Coda to a Cold Case BROTHER OF BILLY STRINGS ARRESTED FOR MURDER OF DENVER MUSICIAN ZACKARY SMITH. BY C HRIS PEREZ The brother of Grammy Award-winning blue- grass singer and guitarist Billy Strings is fac- ing murder charges in Denver, with police saying that he gunned down a local musician more than three years ago. Patrick Lee Apostol, 45, was arrested two weeks ago in connection with the death of Zackary Smith, who was shot in the head while driving down an alley in east Denver on September 10, 2020, according to police. Court documents from a federal 2022 weapons and drugs case tie Apostol directly to Strings, whose real name is William Lee Apostol; the two men are half-brothers with the same father, Billy Apostol, who died from a heroin overdose. The Denver District Court confi rms that the Patrick Lee Apostol involved in the 2022 case — born April 30, 1978 — is the same man charged with Smith’s murder. Cops had suspected Apostol was behind the unsolved homicide and were investigat- ing him in 2020 when they stumbled on the drugs and fi rearms that prompted the 2022 case — and Apostol’s eventual plea and con- viction. Since authorities didn’t have “clear and convincing” evidence at the time that he’d committed the shooting, they went after Apostol on the lesser charges and continued to build their murder case. Filings from the 2022 drug case show that Apostol routinely brought up his guitar- picking sibling, asking his wife on one occa- sion during a June 1, 2021, phone call from behind bars to tell a pretrial services offi cer that he has a “very rich brother” who “won a Grammy.” At one point during the trial, Federal Public Defender Mary Butterton went so far as to use Apostol’s connection to Strings as a way to defend him from “the government’s assertion” that Apostol was a drug dealer with “private jets and lavish items” refl ective of a “drug-traffi cking issue.” “Mr. Apostol mentioned to me...much of that is because Mr. Apostol’s younger brother is a Grammy Award-winning artist by the name of Billy Strings. Being not cool, I had to Google him. But it does appear that Billy Strings is, in fact, a Grammy Award-winning musician who is, you know, very wealthy,” Butterton said at trial. “And Mr. Apostol has traveled around with his brother on private jets, and his brother has, has been very generous with him. ... So I just wanted to put that on the record as well, as Mr. Apostol just informed me of that.” On June 2, 2022, Apostol filed a motion for a below- guideline sentence of time served (386 days, or nearly thirteen months) that would be followed by a period of pro- bation after he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to dis- tribute fi fty kilograms or more of marijuana. One of the reasons listed for the shorter sentence request was “Mr. Apostol’s his- tory and characteristics,” which — according to him — included a “chaotic” childhood and the loss of his father. “See Exhibit A,” the motion reads, citing a 2021 New York Times article with the headline “How Billy Strings Picked His Way to the Other Side.” “Born William Lee Apostol, Strings grew up in the tiny lake- bound Central Michigan town of Muir, where his childhood seemed an insurmountable ob- stacle course,” the article ex- plains. “His father, Billy, died from a heroin overdose when Strings, his youngest son, was two. His mother, Debra Apostol, mar- ried her fi rst love, Terry Barber, who reared Strings as his own.” In the sentencing motion, Apostol is de- scribed as having a “challenging upbringing.” His father had “two other sons who are Mr. Apostol’s half brothers,” but “thanks to his mother, Mr. Apostol mostly avoided the fate of his half brothers, who grew up in pov- erty.” The Times piece about Strings delves into how the singer stayed with his mother, Debra, and the pair “slid into penury” as she struggled with depression “prompted by her sister’s murder.” Strings would go on to use music as his life raft, learning to play guitar at the age of fi ve so his parents “would pay attention” to him, he told the Times. While Apostol thought his life expe- riences would persuade the judge to let him out early, the idea backfi red: Federal prosecutors, in their offi cial response to the motion for non-guideline sentencing, cited Apostol’s upbringing and relation to Strings as reasons why Apostol’s “history and characteristics” should not support a request for a shorter sentence. “Compared to other defendants, there’s not much in his history that serves to mitigate this conduct,” their response noted. “By his own admission, he has the support of his mother and ‘went to good schools, was a Boy Scout, and went to college.’ If Apostol is to be believed, his brother lavished him with gifts and money. Despite no reported income, Apostol could afford to rent a six-bedroom house. Inside that house were expensive clothes, shoes and jewelry (including an $18,000 watch). In sum, Apostol has had natural advantages that many defendants could only dream of. His greed more than anything else explains his conduct here.” Apostol wound up being sentenced to thirty months behind bars, but only served fourteen after his conviction, according to prison records. The self-described “philanthropist” had tried using his ties to Strings to help argue for his release from jail after his initial drugs and weapons arrest, but the court had ordered him detained instead. “While the government has pointed out that Mr. Apostol appears to have access to signifi cant funds and, perhaps a private jet, Mr. Apostol has explained that is the result of the largesse of his successful musician- brother,” the Order of Detention reads. “Since that brother would risk signifi cant fi nancial and criminal penalties if he al- lowed Mr. Apostol to use those resources to abscond from justice, he would seem unlikely to participate in a scheme to abscond. ...In any event, since the government has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no combination of conditions will reasonably mitigate the danger Mr. Apostol would pres- ent to the community if released, he must be detained, and the Court need not decide whether he is also a fl ight risk.” From May 26 to June 13, 2022, Apostol was incarcerated at the ICE Detention Cen- ter in Aurora. His relation to Strings was brought up multiple times during phone calls with people on the outside, including one with a friend identifi ed as “Matt,” who, according to case documents, told Apostol: “If your brother wasn’t famous you wouldn’t be in this situation.” Lindsay Wadman, a Denver resident who knows Apostol through friends, tells West- word he would regularly mention Strings when around others. “He talks about him all the time,” Wadman says. “Before I knew what his full name was, I knew him as ‘Billy Strings’s brother.’ That’s his thing; he name- drops his brother.” The connection wasn’t enough to prevent Apostol’s arrest on November 17. Apostol is accused of opening fi re on Smith during the early hours of September 10, 2020, as Smith was driving away from a residence where Apostol lived with his wife, who was romanti- cally involved with the slain Autonomix gui- tarist, according to case documents obtained by CBS News. Inmate records show that the woman was taken into custody on November 17 and booked at the Downtown Detention Center on a “U.S. Marshal Offense/Hold,” but CBS reports that she has not been charged. According to court documents, Apostol “settled in Colorado” in 2010 and met his wife in 2016. The two were living together at the time of Smith’s murder. At the murder scene, by East 17th Avenue between Quince and Quebec streets, Denver Police Department investigators saw a Ring security camera system on a nearby residence at 7315 East 17th, where Apostol lived, and contacted him to see if he would hand over the footage. He declined. NEWS continued on page 8 KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS Billy Strings (real name William Lee Apostol) and murder suspect Patrick Apostol both had the same dad, Billy Apostol, who died of a heroin overdose. FACEBOOK/DENVER POLICE DEPARTMENT
