PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
Laurie Mason Schroeder
ALLENTOWN — An Allentown man who admitted he used a hammer to kill a pastor in a city rooming house last year was sentenced Monday to six to 12 years in a state prison.
Jose Colon, 20, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in September, saying he lashed out because he woke up and found pastor Luis Herrera attempting to rape him.
‘I just raged. I can’t describe it,’ Colon told Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg. ‘I’ve never been through that before, that kind of rage.’
The killing occurred March 23 at 733 Washington St. Herrera, 47, rented a room at the home and was known in the community as a pastor who helped troubled youth, First Assistant District Attorney Steven Luksa said at Colon’s plea hearing.
Herrera’s obituary in The Morning Call listed him as a pastor at the Pentecostal Church of Christ in Allentown.
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