There are new developments in the murder of the Rev. David Strong, the prominent Chattanooga pastor who was brutally tortured and killed in October 2010. Last May, a Chattanooga jury indicted 17-year-old Brendan Barnes and his 26-year-old cousin Antonio Henry for first degree murder. Henry initially claimed the pastor made unwanted sexual advances. Henry later claimed that the pastor previously paid him for sex.
A judge ruled last February that Barnes will be charged as an adult. The two defendants blame each other for the murder and defense attorneys want separate trials. Hearings for seprate trials began last week.
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"District Attorney Bill Cox said Antonio Henry, 26, and his teenage cousin, Brendan Barnes, 'did the crime together' and should be tried together," reports The Republic, "Defense attorneys told Criminal Court Judge Don Poole that one trial would not be fair or practical because of conflicting statements the co-defendants have given investigators."
In October, Henry said in jailhouse interviews that he and Barnes stabbed Strong after the pastor made unwanted sexual advances. Police detectives later contradicted that story in court, saying Henry told police that Strong sometimes paid him to perform sex acts.
Relatives of the slain pastor say Strong, who was single and had no children, was not gay. Alcohol and marijuana were found in the pastor's system during an autopsy. The two suspects claim the pastor offered them drinks and marijuana on the night he was killed.
Rev. David Strong pastored the St. Paul AME Church for a decade and had a long history in Tennessee and Kentucky with the AME Church. The 2.5 million-member African Methodist Episcopal Church is the world's oldest and largest predominately Black denomination. The AME Church has opposed openly gay clergy, same sex unions, most gay rights initiatives and marriage equality.
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