Pastor forgives truck thief at sentencing
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years AGO
BILLINGS (AP) — A Billings pastor says he forgives the man who stole his pickup truck, but the justice system wasn’t quite so magnanimous.
Judge Mary Jane McCalla Knisely sentenced 33-year-old Jose Angel Flores Thursday to three years with the state Department of Corrections and ordered him to pay nearly $6,000 in damages.
Fred Rodda, the pastor of Living Water church, took the witness stand before the sentence was handed down.
He told Flores he forgave him and welcomed getting to know him in the future. Flores apologized for stealing the truck and agreed to meet with Rodda.
Flores was arrested in November in Brookings, South Dakota, after he told a sheriff’s deputy there he bought the Ford F-150 for $200.
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