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  DeSoto Minister Indicted for Aggravated Rape
Four Teens Accused in September Murder Also Formally Charged

By Vickie Welborn
Shreveport Times
October 17, 2006

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061017/BREAKINGNEWS/61017015

Mansfield – The pastor of a small country church in the Stanley community was indicted today for the aggravated rape of an 11-year-old girl.

Burchum Paul Warren, 50, pastor of South Oak Grove Assembly of God Church, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl over a period of months, DeSoto sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said. Warren has been pastor of the church for 15 or more years.

The victim, a relative and church member, reported the alleged abuse to a teacher. As a mandated reporter, the teacher notified the sheriff's office. Child Protective Services and sheriff's investigators jointly interviewed the girl earlier this month.

"This child had the courage enough to approach a teacher at school to report this. … One of the things she told her teacher is "No one is going to believe me because of who he is and what he does,'" Morris said.

In connection with the investigation, investigators seized Warren's laptop computer, which contained "images of a sexual nature that corroborated the victim's statement. … But there was nothing on the computer that we found that is illegal."

District Judge Charles Adams signed a warrant for Warren's arrest shortly after the DeSoto grand jury returned the indictment about 3 p.m. Warren still was not in custody at 3:45 p.m.

In other matters, the grand jury also returned true bills against four teens arrested last month in connection with the shooting death of a DeSoto Parish man.

The grand jury handed down indictments charging Billy Blow, 16, Damarcus Hines, 16, Derrick Sudds, 16, and Ronald Belsha, 15, all of Mansfield, with one count each of second-degree murder and attempted armed robbery. The four, who will be prosecuted as adults, are accused in the Sept. 19 death of Vertis Booker, 68, who died at LSU Hospital in Shreveport after being shot twice at his home near the Oxford community.

A plan to rob Booker was concocted at school and carried out later in the day by the four, investigators have said. The teenagers went to Booker's house and initially asked for water. Three gunshots were fired at Booker, with two striking him. Additional shots were fired afterwards. The four teenagers were arrested on Antioch Road a short distance from Booker's home.

 
 

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