Right or Wrong?

By Travis Andersen, Associated Press

CHICHESTER, N.H.—A pastor in this quiet, picturesque New England town thought he was doing the Christian thing when he took in a convicted child killer who had served his time but had nowhere to go.

But some neighbors of the Rev. David Pinckney vehemently disagree, one even threatening to burn his house down after officials could find no one else willing to take 60-year-old Raymond Guay.

More than 200 town residents on Tuesday packed a selectmen's meeting, the first since news of Guay's arrival broke over the weekend. Most called for Guay's removal, claiming repeatedly that their children couldn't sleep and were afraid to play outside.

Lindsay Holden told the selectmen that she has met with state and federal officials and has pressed them to move Guay somewhere else for the sake of her children.

"I wouldn't be a good mom if I stood by and did nothing," she said.

Pinckney, pastor of the evangelical River of Grace Church a dozen miles west in Concord, and Guay, who was paroled in September after 35 years behind bars, did not attend the meeting.

Guay already had a criminal record when he was charged in 1973, at age 25, with abducting and murdering a 12-year-old boy in Nashua. Authorities said he planned to sexually assault the boy, whose body was clad only in socks and undershorts.

Guay pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to up to 25 years. He kidnapped a Concord couple after briefly escaping from the nearby state prison in 1982 and was sent to a federal prison in California, where he stabbed an inmate in 1991, court records show.

He was released from a federal prison in West Virginia in September after New Hampshire officials lost a bid to keep him incarcerated as a dangerous sexual predator under federal law.

After New Hampshire officials protested his relocation to Manchester last fall, Guay went to a halfway house in Connecticut. A judge recently ordered him to spend the remaining 2 1/2 years of his parole in New Hampshire.

Two rooming houses turned Guay away when he returned to Concord last week.

A Concord prison chaplain contacted Pinckney, who agreed to take Guay in after meeting him and clearing it with his wife and their four children living at home, ages 13 to 18. Their oldest son is away at college. Guay is staying with the family while he looks for a job and place to live.

The local selectmen, before they heard from residents, voted unanimously to ask federal probation officer Thomas Tarr to move Guay. Selectman Richard DeBold stressed that his board has no legal authority in the matter.

Tarr told residents he had to comply with a federal judge's order to place Guay in New Hampshire. He said Guay has agreed to wear a monitoring device while staying with Pinckney's family. He blamed "inflammatory" media coverage for the flap.

Several residents said they doubted the system could save their children if Guay snapped.

Pinckney did not return calls or answer the door when a reporter visited his house, but he assured the town in an open letter published Tuesday that Guay poses no threat.

"We would not be doing this if we thought we were endangering our town, neighbors or children," he wrote.

Though Guay "has committed some horrendous crimes in his past," he has been on "a very different course" since a religious transformation in 1993, Pinckney said.

Pinckney has told Guay he may only leave the house in a car with another adult and can live with the family for no more than two months.

When residents asked what would happen if Guay didn't find a job or a new place by then, Tarr said he couldn't guarantee Guay would leave, adding that authorities have begun scouting two or three new locations for him outside Chichester. He would not elaborate.

Resident Greg Steelman stood out from the crowd Tuesday, telling his neighbors to tone down the hysteria surrounding Guay.

"Our kids probably have a better chance of getting hit by a drunk driver than getting killed by this guy," he said.

Another resident, Brandon Giuda, urged neighbors to pipe down and vote for pro-gun and pro-death penalty candidates if they really wanted to protect their families.

Many residents said Chichester, population about 2,200, is too small and rural to be suitable for Guay.

Conrad Mandsager, of Nottingham, just southeast of Chichester, disagreed. In the 1980s, Mandsager worked for the Prison Fellowship, a faith-based group that helps parolees find jobs, and took a violent felon into his home with his family of five. He said the man got a job through the Prison Fellowship and turned his life around.

"You create more opportunities for problems by putting (convicts) in a larger city where there's no accountability," Mandsager said by phone. He said he expects better results in a home like Pinckney's, "where there's accountability and care and love for the guy."