http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2291578
Dec. 13, 2003, 12:33PM
Pastor sentenced to 26 years, twin gets 14 in boy's beating
Associated Press
AUSTIN -- A church pastor was sentenced to 26 years in prison Friday
for severely beating a Bible studies student with a tree branch after
the child misbehaved during a summer class.
The pastor's twin brother received a 14-year sentence for his role in
the beating.
"Justice was served," prosecutor Beth Payan said.
Pastor Joshua Thompson, 23, who ministered to the Spanish-speaking
congregation at the fundamentalist Capitol City Baptist Church, was
ordered to serve 26 years for injury to a child and 20 years for
aggravated assault of Louie Guerrero.
His twin brother, Caleb, was sentenced to 14-year sentences on the
same convictions. All of the sentences will run concurrently. Both men
will be eligible for parole after they serve half their sentences.
The Thompsons had asked for probation. They avoided life in prison.
Defense attorneys said they would appeal the convictions. Carlos
Garcia, one of Caleb Thompson's attorneys, said the sentences did not
surprise him.
"You never know what a jury is going to do," Garcia said. "It's a
volatile subject matter. Was it justice? Only time will tell."
Prosecutors had said the brothers beat Guerrero, now 12, so badly on
July 3, 2002, that he spent a week in intensive care under the threat
of kidney failure and needed a blood transfusion.
The jury convicted the brothers Wednesday and took about seven hours
over two days to decide the sentences.
The victim's mother, Norma Arellano, and stepfather, Genevevo
Arellano, held hands while the sentences were announced. The brothers
were immediately sent to prison.
The brothers' father, Hank Thompson, leads the church, and dozens of
members of the congregation sat in stunned silence in the courtroom,
while Joshua Thompson's wife, Maressa, sat in the front row behind the
defendants and cried.
Relatives of the victim and defendants all left the courtroom without
comment after the sentences were announced.
Guerrero and a doctor who treated him said he was hit at least 100
times. During the trial, jurors saw graphic photos of the boy's back
with red and purple bruises and blood spots from scrapes or puncture
wounds.
The brothers admitted the beating but disputed the blow count and its
intensity. Joshua Thompson said Guerrero's parents had given him
permission to punish the boy and that he didn't intend to inflict
serious injuries. Guerrero's parents deny telling him he could hit
their child.
Neither man had a criminal record before their conviction and both
acknowledged during trial that what they did was wrong.
(EAC Crime watch, reality division)
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Yang
a.a. #28
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
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