Child Porn Charges Added to Life Sentence for Youth Pastor Who Killed and Dismembered Teen

On Monday (Jan. 23), authorities sentenced a former Florida youth pastor to seven years in state prison for child pornography. The Jacksonville youth pastor is already serving a life sentence for murdering and dismembering a teen he fostered.

In April, Ronnie Hyde, 66, was charged with 1st-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment for killing and cutting a 16-year-old boy’s body into pieces in 1994.

Last week, Hyde pleaded guilty to three counts of child pornography after detectives confirmed his fingerprints on multiple materials taken from his residence.

Police discovered the explicit materials while searching Hyde’s two homes to investigate a teen who mysteriously disappeared over 20 years prior. Authorities reopened the case after tips from the family on a cold-case murder potentially linked the teen with an unidentified severed torso found behind a dumpster.

Hyde befriended 16-year-old Fred Laster through Strength for Living Church, where Hyde was the youth pastor.

The teen went missing in 1994—the same time a woman walking her dog discovered a severed torso behind a nearby BP gas station dumpster. Laster’s family claimed Hyde was the last to see Laster alive.

In early 2017, 23 years after his disappearance, new DNA technology confirmed the torso belonged to Laster. Police arrested Hyde after DNA taken from items in his trash matched DNA found on a flannel shirt in the dumpster next to Laster’s decapitated remains.

At his attorney’s request, officials tried Hyde on 25 charges of possessing child pornography in a separate case following the murder trial. Hyde pleaded guilty to three of those counts on January 4.

Police, concerned about more unreported crimes tied to Hyde, asked for the public’s assistance in identifying more victims. An FBI report said Hyde was a licensed mental health counselor and volunteered at local prisons, nonprofits, and churches.

Among the churches listed were North Jacksonville Baptist, First Baptist at Jacksonville Beach (now One Church Jacksonville Beach), First Baptist in Orange Park, and Ridgeview Baptist Church in Gainesville. His Facebook page, since taken down, said that in 2017, he was working at Crosswater Community Church in Nocatee.

Crosswater’s Pastor, Jack Millwood, told News4Jax that he talked with the FBI about Hyde, and the church fully cooperated with the investigation.

“I am personally not aware of any victims of Ron Hyde that involve anyone associated with Crosswater,” Millwood said in a video released by the church. “Our main concern, as always, is to help people and victims in our area. Our thoughts and prayers go out to any potential victims of any crimes committed.”

North Jacksonville Baptist’s Associate Pastor Chris A. Coram shared with MinistryWatch a statement drafted by their attorney in 2018. It said the claim that Hyde volunteered decades ago was a surprise to the church, as the church had no recollection of Hyde or contact with him.

The statement said the church thoroughly inspected its records going back to 1980. “No record of Mr. Hyde or any contact with him (in any form or fashion) was found,” it said.

“North Jacksonville Baptist Church remains steadfast in its efforts to prevent predators of all types from gaining access to its members and guests. The church also continues to pray for the alleged victims of Mr. Hyde and their families. We have faith that justice will be served, and some measure of peace will come to the victim’s families,” the statement concluded.

Pastor David Tarkington of First Baptist Orange Park also claimed not to know Hyde and told MinistryWatch that hearing Hyde worked there was a shock to him. He said the church’s membership secretary looked at every business meeting report from 1973 – 2000 and did not find Hyde’s name.

“I asked older church members and others who may have known him and even talked with those in our single adult ministry that I thought may have met him at some events or functions. We ended up with no one recollecting his ever being here.”

Tarkington also told us, “We would be absolutely forthcoming if he were here and if he served in such a capacity, but as far as we can tell, he never was here…I have been here at the church since 1994 and have no recall of him ever volunteering with our children or teenagers.”

While the Southern Baptist Convention’s website recognizes Ridgeview Baptist Church in Gainesville, an internet search indicates the church no longer exists. In its place, we found a Spanish-speaking church, Iglesia Hispana Gainesville, claiming the address at 3508 NW 19th St.

MinistryWatch reached out to One Church Jacksonville and has not received a response at the time of writing.

Strength for Living Church, where Hyde was a youth pastor when he met Laster in the late 1980s, was the subject of an investigation by Jacksonville police before the Laster case. Dr. Ed Stalnecker, pastor at the church decades ago, was arrested on a Duval County forgery charge in 1995. Stalnecker and his wife Betty Jean hosted a local Sunday afternoon cable talk show: “Do you believe?” The church no longer exists.

Hyde’s seven-year sentence for child pornography possession will run concurrently with his life sentence.