VALRICO, Fla. — Mathai Pallipurath said Mathew Korattiyil was like a brother to him. He said the place he was found dead was his church.
"He worked hard for this place," Pallipurath said.
Pallipurath was there Wednesday for a sense of closure.
"We want to see the place where the police found his body," he told 10News.
According to the affidavit, James Hanson Jr. took Korattiyil to the parking lot after robbing a bank and carjacking him.
The affidavit said he parked in the back of the church and refused to let Korattiyil go.
It then says Korattiyil punched him and tried to get away, but Hanson chased him and strangled him, then dragged his body to the bushes and took off.
As Pallipurath and the rest of Korattiyil's community mourns him, we’re learning more about why Hanson got out of jail in the first place.
Hanson was sentenced to life in prison in 2003 for robbery.
The Office of the State Attorney explained in a statement that Hanson testified against another accused robber and murderer, Robert Henderson III, in 2016. They say around the time Hanson was helping get Henderson behind bars, he was also trying to get a new trial for himself.
The State Attorney’s Office said, “In consideration of his post-conviction claims and the substantial testimony he provided against Henderson, the State Attorney’s Office agreed to a sentence of twenty years imprisonment plus ten years of probation for Hanson,” and goes on to say “The hard reality of our criminal justice system is that sometimes prosecutors have to use the testimony of criminals to convict other criminals.”
Now that Hanson is charged with the same crimes he helped convict Henderson for, that reality is all too real for Korattiyil's friends and the children and grandchildren, he leaves behind.
"His wife is very sad," Pallipurath said. "Everyone is very sad."
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