Following arrest in cold case of missing boy, Ronnie Hyde facing 12 new child-porn charges

FLORIDA
Florida Times-Union

Posted March 28, 2017

By Eileen Kelley

A dozen child pornography charges have been added to a murder case involving a former youth pastor charged in the death and dismemberment of a 16-year-old boy who went missing in 1994.

Ronnie Leon Hyde, 60, of Jacksonville Beach was arrested on March 7 on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Fred Paul Laster, a boy he befriended in Yulee when Hyde was a youth pastor at Strength for Living Church. Hyde was to be in court Wednesday, though his arraignment date has been changed to April 11.

Monday’s new charges relate to 12 different pieces of pornography that depict a child in a sex act. Each of the 12 forms of evidence has at least 10 or more images, to include movies, of sexual performances by a child, according to a statement from the State Attorney’s Office.

According to court records, many of the titles of the evidence collected were a jumble of letters and numbers, though three contained names the Cindy, Steven and Paul. FBI officials were not speaking publicly about the matter Tuesday other than to acknowledge additional charges had been filed against Hyde. Coupled with the murder charge, Hyde now faces a maximum sentence of life plus 180 years if convicted of all charges.

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