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Rosa Sentenced To Life For Strangling Of Teen

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By KEITH MORELLI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 22, 2008

TAMPA - A jury convicted former youth minister Joshua Rosa of first-degree murder Monday in the strangulation of his 13-year-old neighbor.

Within minutes, a judge sentenced the 22-year-old to life in prison.

Ron Tomlinson, the father of victim Stephen Tomlinson, shook and cried when the verdict was read.

"I'm so glad this is over," he said. "I can move on now."

In despair and relief, people sobbed on each side of the courtroom as the guilty verdict was read.

Outside, Rosa's father, Danny, sobbed loudly, and his wails could be heard inside the courtroom as his son faced sentencing. Paramedics were called to treat Danny Rosa, who appeared incapacitated well after the courtroom had cleared.

Addressing the court before the sentencing, Tomlinson said Rosa took his son from him and that rage trumped forgiveness even 31 months after his son was slain.

"My life is destroyed," he said, glancing over his shoulder at Rosa, who, for the most part, showed no emotion throughout the proceeding, only opening his mouth and lowering his head when the verdict was read.

"I want him to know that's what he did to me."

The victim's uncle, Donald, said he wished there was a law that would make it mandatory to put his nephew's picture up in Rosa's cell.

"That way," Donald Tomlinson said, "you would wake up every morning to look at him. We've got to visit a grave. You took something that was very special. I hate you. I hate you for it."

Death Penalty Wasn't An Option

Rosa maintained his innocence to the end, telling the court after his sentencing that he would pray that those who killed the teen will be punished.

"By no means do I say I am the perpetrator," Rosa said. "I stand by my innocence here today."

Members of Rosa's family declined to comment afterward. About 20 members of his church, the Zion Pentecostal Church for All People, formed a prayer circle outside the courthouse after the hearing. They held hands and prayed loudly.

Defense attorney Brian Gonzalez said the verdict and sentence likely will be appealed.

The four-man, eight-woman jury deliberated for three hours Friday night and returned Monday morning to continue its work.

Three times the panel buzzed the courtroom Monday morning, sending court personnel and bailiffs into action. But the requests were inconsequential.

A fourth time, at 10:50 a.m., the jury announced it had reached a verdict.

The panel found Rosa guilty of first-degree murder, but prosecutors decided two years ago not to seek the death penalty.

Assistant State Attorney Jay Pruner said the facts of the case did not support a death sentence should Rosa be convicted as charged.

"There were a myriad of factors involved," he said, declining to be specific.

Each homicide case is presented to a committee within the prosecutor's office to decide how to proceed, he said. The committee weighs aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and it has to predict whether a jury would recommend a death penalty. In this case, prosecutors decided, the death penalty was inappropriate.

That left Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente with no sentencing discretion; he sentenced Rosa to life in prison.

The emotionally charged proceedings were temporarily halted last week after a relative of the victim shouted at Rosa, seated at the defense table. On Friday and again Monday morning, Fuente cautioned the packed courtroom about emotional outbursts. Six armed bailiffs were in the courtroom. Two stood behind Rosa, and three were in the gallery standing in the center aisle. One stood next to the jury.

The prosecution and defense agreed that Rosa was at the scene of a homicide in the darkened woods near a Logan Gate Village park in Citrus Park on Dec. 8, 2005. The victim's blood was on Rosa's gloves, shoes and clothes. Prosecutors and the defense disagreed on when and how that blood got there.

Motive Remains A Mystery

Gonzalez argued that his client, a Hillsborough Community College student and part-time employee of a sports apparel store, was guilty only of trying to help the stricken teen, whom Rosa came across during a walk in the woods. The defense called to the stand a forensic pathologist, who suggested the slaying could have been the work of more than one attacker.

Rosa did not testify in his own defense.

Pruner told the jury that the evidence, though circumstantial, left no reasonable doubt that Rosa strangled the teen and that no one else was involved.

During his closing argument Friday, the veteran prosecutor pulled on a pair of white gloves smudged with blood and grime that, he said, were worn by Rosa when he strangled the teen. He demonstrated how the boy was throttled, using the gloves as a visual aid. Pruner left the gloves on for much of the rest of his closing argument.

A motive for the homicide remained an unanswered question throughout the trial.

The teen was found with his pants down and his nose and shirt bloody, but there was no evidence presented that he had been sexually assaulted. Traces of his blood were found on Rosa's shoes, hands and pants, prosecutors said, and DNA samples on a set of fingernail clippers found on Rosa matched that of the victim.

Gonzalez tried to convince the jury that his client is innocent and that he happened upon Tomlinson after the teen had been attacked in the woods. The teen's blood on a pair of gloves belonging to Rosa got there when Rosa tried to help Tomlinson, Gonzalez said.

Rosa, a former youth minister at Zion Pentecostal Church for All People, lived near the Tomlinson family. He once or twice took the teen to his church and introduced him to church members.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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