Pastor forgives truck thief at sentencing
The Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 years, 1 month 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.
MORE IMPORTED STORIES
ARTICLES BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland
WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.
The Latest: US helped family escape Afghanistan overland
WASHINGTON — The United States is confirming for the first time that it has helped a U.S. citizen and family members to escape Afghanistan through an overland route to a neighboring country.
The Latest: Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans
WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to leave but the Taliban are not letting them take off.