Thread: TN - Sevier mom backs death for daughter's (IA) killer

SEVIERVILLE - The mother of a young Army private says she wants her daughter's killer "punished to the max."

The man accused of killing Pvt. Melissa Victoria Foster was arraigned Monday in Sevier County Circuit Court after being extradited from North Carolina last week.

Julio Enrique Fernandez remains in custody in the Sevier County Jail on a first-degree murder charge in connection with the death of Foster, whose body was found Nov. 14 in a Sevierville apartment Fernandez shared with two other men. Fernandez and his roommates are illegal immigrants from Honduras, according to authorities.

Fernandez became a suspect in the killing early in the investigation, detectives with the Sevierville Police Department said, but he fled East Tennessee. He was captured Feb. 14 in Raleigh, N.C., and had fought extradition, but he was returned anyway.

Teresa Hinton of Pigeon Forge, Foster's mother, said Monday she wants her daughter's killer punished to the fullest extent of the law, and advocates the death penalty.

Foster, 17, had enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating high school, Hinton said, and had completed part of her basic training when she was injured.

Foster was sent home for a period of convalescence, and that is when she was killed.

Foster and Fernandez, whose age is reportedly between 19 and 22, previously had a rocky relationship. Hinton said her daughter had planned to attend a birthday party for her younger brother after she went to visit Fernandez that day. She never arrived at the party.

Fernandez faces a July plea date in the case. He will be tried by Judge Richard Vance. Judge Rex Henry Ogle, who presided over Fernandez' arraignment, appointed Sevierville attorney Joseph Baker to represent Fernandez.

Outside the courtroom Monday, Mary Gail Slagle, Foster's grandmother, said the county's "court system will not be good enough" to right the wrong done Foster.

"I have to begin to forgive this boy," she said, "for what he did. He has ripped something away from all of us."

Robert Wilson is a freelance contributor to the News Sentinel.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2009/apr/0 ... rs-killer/

An American daughter who had enlisted in the U.S. Army after graduating high school and had completed part of her basic training when she was injured and sent home for a period of convalescence, and that is when she was killed. These murders have been repeated too many times in every section of the United States.

It doesn’t seem to matter if it is Police Officer in Houston attempting to safe guard his city, a high school student in Los Angeles standing in front of his home while his mother is half way around the world defending her/our country, or a father and his sons in San Francisco driving home all became targets of ILLEGALS and were murdered because of the greed of "our" Elitist Politicians and their Elitist Contributors in search of "cheap labor" to help their "bottom line"!

I just do not understand how our President and our Congress can send our young men and women half way around the world in defense of the United States and refuse to defend our National Borders and Enforce our Immigration Laws while at the same time warning our military, for their own safety, not to wear their uniforms when traveling to "our" southern borders. Now our military can no longer leave their children at home in a "major United States city" and expect them to be safe or a least as safe as the parents in a "combat zone"!!

Our FAMILIES are at the mercy of ILLEGALS and their Anchors being murdered, raped, infected with disease, or robbed. We can see the results of the ILLEGAL invasion in our courts every day! But NOT to worry the Chamber of Commerce will get their "cheap labor" increasing "their privatized" PROFITS while socializing the "benefits" for their ILLEGALS on the back of United States Citizens, thanks to our past and current Presidents, the Congressional Leadership(?), and local elected and appointed officials!!

P.S. Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are all SANCTUARY cities! Has Sevierville now become a just another SANCTUARY city?