| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
26 Feb 2006 04:00:34 PM |
| Object: |
Church Supports Suspect In Slaying |
http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBA30PG3KE.html
Church Supports Suspect In Slaying
By KEITH MORELLI
Published: Feb 25, 2006
TAMPA - Still reeling from the brutal slaying of his teenage son in
December, Ron Tomlinson took another hit this week when he learned a
church Web site was seeking donations to defend the man accused of
killing him.
"It angers me that they would do something like that," an incredulous
Tomlinson said Friday afternoon. "I just couldn't believe that."
Tomlinson's 13-year-old son, Stephen, a skateboarder who was acquainted
with most of his neighbors in the Logan Gate Village subdivision,
including Joshua Rosa, the suspect, was found dead in woods near a
community park Dec. 8. Hillsborough County sheriff's investigators said
he had been strangled.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Rosa a month later, saying genetic tests
linked him to the body. Rosa said he happened upon the body and tried to
revive the teenager. He maintains his innocence.
Rosa, who turned 20 in jail last month, lived across Mondragon Drive
from the Tomlinson family. He occasionally took Stephen to his church,
Zion Pentecostal Church for All People. Rosa was a youth minister there
who introduced Stephen Tomlinson to some of the church members.
A posting on the church Web site expresses Zion's unqualified support
for Rosa. "Our church wants to get involved and be a helping hand in
what is one of the biggest tests that our congregation has been through
ever. We want to make a stand for Christ and for the families of our
church, in this case, the Rosa Family and their son, Joshua Rosa.
"Now, Joshua finds himself wrongfully accused for a crime he did not
commit," the Web site states. "He tried to be a good Samaritan and help
a person in need, as he has been taught, and instead he finds himself
being accused."
The Rosa family has been threatened and has had to move, the Web site
states, and is "suffering from financial problems. What is worse: Joshua
needs urgent financial support to get a good attorney." Criminal defense
attorneys "are really expensive and they [the Rosas] do not have the
funds to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars."
"Please get involved," the Web site urges. "If at least you give one
dollar, that will be used in this very just cause."
Ron Tomlinson noted that there was no mention of his son or the way he
was killed.
"They don't put in there what he [Rosa] was charged with," Tomlinson
said. A friend spotted the posting a few days ago and told Tomlinson.
The grieving father said he doubted he would take any action.
"That's their choice," he said. "If they want to put that on there,
that's their choice, but when you have a place of God that's doing it,
raising money for the defense for somebody who did that to my son, I
just couldn't believe it."
Richard Guzman, pastor of the church, made no apologies. He said his
church has the right to say whatever it wants in its sermons and on its
Web site.
"We can't be restrained," he said, adding that the congregation is
convinced of Rosa's innocence. "No one is going to stop us. That is our
prerogative."
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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| User: "Terry Austin" |
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| Title: Re: Church Supports Suspect In Slaying |
26 Feb 2006 05:29:11 PM |
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stoney <stoney@the.net> wrote in
news:f49402lqi0ptt37cbvqg91bund2r9v3iig@4ax.com:
http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBA30PG3KE.html
Church Supports Suspect In Slaying
By KEITH MORELLI
Published: Feb 25, 2006
TAMPA - Still reeling from the brutal slaying of his teenage son in
December, Ron Tomlinson took another hit this week when he learned a
church Web site was seeking donations to defend the man accused of
killing him.
"It angers me that they would do something like that," an incredulous
Tomlinson said Friday afternoon. "I just couldn't believe that."
He's angered that the accused will get a fair trial with a competent
attorney to defend him? He'd rather punish someone at random than actually
know the truth? What a loser.
--
Terry Austin
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