ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GRETNA
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER AND TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITERS
HE'S BIG FOR HIS AGE and heavyset, but townsfolk who know the 8-year-old describe him as ``nice,'' ``normal'' and ``a typical kid.''
In this rural Pittsylvania County town, the news that an 8-year-old has been arrested and charged with murder in the death of his stepfather has been met mostly with disbelief.
Even in a big city, the beating death of 55-year-old Franklin County parole and probation officer Bernard R. Rosser Jr. in his own home might be shocking; but in a quiet place like this, it seems an impossibility.
On the main strip in Gretna, the Christmas decorations still haven't been taken down. A drive through town reveals no sign of controversy. In the shops and restaurants, most people were just learning Wednesday afternoon about the arrest that has brought national attention to the town.
At the Gretna Motel, where Rosser, his wife, Frances, and her son stayed for a week after a house fire about a year ago, the assistant manager, Martin "Cowboy" James, remembers the family as "real nice."
The boy is heavyset and unusually big for his age, James said. ``When he was here, he seemed like a normal kid to me,'' James said. ``I just don't think he could have did it.''
A family member at the Rosser home declined to comment Wednesday.
The exceptional circumstances of the case have prompted investigators and prosecutors in Pittsylvania County to release almost no information. No one would even verify that a hearing for the child had been scheduled. It took place in the county's Juvenile and Domestic Relations courtroom Tuesday afternoon.
Details were just as scant in Franklin County, where Bernard Rosser worked and where his wife works. The child's arrest was discussed at lunch counters and around water coolers across the county, but the people closest to the Rossers said nothing.
Assistant County Administrator Bonnie Newlon did confirm that Rosser's wife is a family support coordinator for the county's Office on Youth.
The Rossers moved to Gretna about two years ago from Houston, Texas, and most of their neighbors know them only as a quiet, church-going family who stayed to themselves. Even at Piney Grove Missionary Baptist, where they worshiped and where Bernard Rosser is buried, the church folk don't know much.
"They was nice people, far as you knew," said a church deacon who asked not to be named. "They just come to church, sit and listen to the service, speak to one or two people and then [they were] gone."
The Rossers' elderly next-door neighbor, Edward Tweedy, remembers the boy as a conscientious child who came over with his two beagles when the weather was bad to make sure Tweedy was OK.
"He'd come over here once in awhile in the deep snow to check on me," Tweedy said. "He seemed to be just a typical kid."
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CINDY PINKSTON STAFF. 1. The body of probation officerby CNBBernard Rosser Jr. was found in his Pittsylvania County home Dec.
19. color. 2. Bernard Rosser Jr.'s gravesite is behind the Piney
Grove Missionary Baptist Church, where the family worshiped.