MARTINEZ, Calif. -- The man accused of murdering an East Bay mortgage broker pleaded not guilty Thursday in a scheme authorities believe centered on a plot to rip off JPMorgan Chase by illegally flipping a Richmond home.

Reginald James Robinson, a 31-year-old El Sobrante resident, has been charged with murder, solicitation of murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting of 42-year-old San Ramon resident Kashmir Billon, who was found dead next to a smoldering car on Bishop Drive in San Ramon on April 27.

Friends and family members of both Billon and Robinson filled the Martinez courtroom today to hear the plea.

"They were good friends," Edward Lewis, Robinson's grandmother's first cousin, said outside the courthouse.

Lewis said Billon bought houses and Robinson did the legwork to fix them up to resell them.

Billon had paid Robinson well and he would have had no reason to kill him, Lewis said.

"I don't think any of us will rest until all the evidence comes out and Reggie is free," Lewis said.

Robinson's uncle Robert Evans said his nephew had always tried to help people and that murdering someone would be completely out of character for him.

According to Contra Costa County prosecutor Ken McCormick, two men -- Miguel Angel Alvarado and Javier Gomez -- who made a court appearance on Wednesday were hired by Robinson to invent a fake person named "Francisco" who would buy the two-story house at an inflated price of $495,000.

The men who then walk away from the loan and Robinson would pocket the money.

"We believe this was an illegal flipping operation," McCormick told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The person who gets cheated is the bank. They have nobody to go after because the purchaser was a fictitious individual."

Supervising Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett said that Billon was killed by Robinson or a gunman Robinson hired after he discovered the illegal real estate dealing.

Firefighters found Billon's body at about 11 p.m. near a smoldering car at 2600 Bishop Drive in San Ramon.

Investigators are still working to determine how much Billon knew about the alleged scheme.

"It's possible he was killed because he found out about the fraud," Jewett said.

San Ramon police got a break in the case shortly after the murder when a person officials are not identifying contacted investigators and told them that Robinson had allegedly solicited that person to kill Billon the Friday before the murder, Jewett said.

The person said no, and after learning of Billon's murder, contacted investigators and told them about the alleged earlier solicitation, Jewett said.