{"id":22110,"date":"2013-06-24T16:46:37","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T20:46:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=22110"},"modified":"2013-06-24T16:46:37","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T20:46:37","slug":"parents-say-meds-played-role-in-sons-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=22110","title":{"rendered":"Parents Say Meds Played Role In Son\u2019s Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Last month, a <\/strong>jury convicted a 20-year-old salesman of sexual battery. Last week, the young man was sentenced to life in prison for the crime.<\/p>\n

However, his parents feel that there were extenuating circumstances that should have been taken into consideration.<\/p>\n

Rashad Hales <\/strong>was arrested December 30, 2011, and charged with two counts of attempted murder, three counts of sexual battery, two counts of armed burglary, and tampering with a witness. The Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office dropped one count of armed burglary and the tampering with a witness charge. Hillsborough County Judge Chet Thorpe<\/strong> dismissed the attempted murder charges during the trial.<\/p>\n

According to police, Hales, <\/strong>who was an authorized salesman of ADT Security, <\/strong>was working as a door-to-door salesman at the time of the offense. He reportedly went to the woman\u2019s home to solicit business for the company.<\/p>\n

The woman reportedly told him that her fianc\u00e9e handled those types of affairs and he was not at home at the time.<\/p>\n

Hales<\/strong> was convicted of returning to the home within 10 minutes. When the victim opened the door, he alleged told the victim he talked to her fianc\u00e9e about signing up.<\/p>\n

The victim attempted to close the door and Hales <\/strong>pushed his way inside the home and locked the door, she told police. He then allegedly beat and strangled and raped her. Hales <\/strong>was arrested at a Shell Gas Station, 11203 Sheldon Road a short time later. Police said Hales <\/strong>admitted to the offense after his arrest.<\/p>\n

His parents, Bobby<\/strong> and Regina Hall, <\/strong>said they have several problems with the case.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Hall<\/strong> said she feels others should take responsibility for the crime. \u201cMy son has had problems such as getting suspended and getting kicked out of school. But, he was about 6 years old when he started taking Ritalin, and he took it until he was 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had anger problems and I tried to get help for him at MHC (the Mental Health Center). They failed my son. When he turned 18, they just took him off his medication and just let him be.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said it didn\u2019t seem right when they (doctors) took him off of the medication, but Rashad<\/strong> tried to live a normal life. \u201cHe hoped he could manage on his own. He had gone back to school trying to get his GED, he started working, and he had signed up to go into the Job Corps. He was supposed to leave in March 2012,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n

She said an ADT salesman came to her home during winter break and told her son the company was hiring. He passed the background check and had been working 10 or 11 days when the incident happened.<\/p>\n

Bobby Hall <\/strong>said, \u201cWe have a lot of young Black kids they put on medication and then they say the kids don\u2019t need it anymore. Then when the kids go off and do something they wonder why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Hall<\/strong> said, \u201cHe is a good boy and didn\u2019t just wake up and decide that he was going to do this. He was also in training and he was supposed to be working with someone at all times, but he was left alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

She further stated that her son had called his supervisor to pick him up, but did not get an answer. \u201cWhen he finally did reach the supervisor, they got into an argument. He was frustrated and just snapped.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his arrest, Mrs. Hall said since her son didn\u2019t have a criminal record, he didn\u2019t know not to talk to police and to answer their questions.<\/p>\n

Bobby Hall<\/strong> also said that Rashad <\/strong>scored out to 271\/2 years in prison. But Judge Thorpe<\/strong> sentenced him to life in prison and an additional 3-30 year sentenced to run consecutively. \u201cThe fact that he had mental issues was never taken into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Hall<\/strong> said, \u201cI felt the judge\u2019s mind was already made up. They were out to get her son because of the race of the young lady.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Hillsborough County State Attorney\u2019s Office said Judge Thorpe <\/strong>had the discretion of sentencing Hales<\/strong> to the lower end of the guidelines or up to life. He further said the victim had requested Hales<\/strong> be sentenced to life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor Last month, a jury convicted a 20-year-old salesman of sexual battery. Last week, the young man was sentenced to life in prison for the crime. However, his parents feel that there were extenuating circumstances that should have been taken into consideration. Rashad Hales was arrested December 30, 2011, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}