An estimated 350 people attended worship Dec. 7 at Bayshore Baptist Church in Bradenton, Fla., to pay respects to 31-year-old Pastor Tripp Battle, who died at the church Dec. 4 in what police believe is a triple homicide.
Also on Sunday morning, murder suspect Andy Avalos Jr., appeared in court for the first time. Avalos, 33, was captured without incident Saturday afternoon at a trailer park not far from the church. He was charged with three counts of second-degree murder and confined to Manatee County Jail without bond.
According to arrest documents, Avalos entered the business office at the church Thursday afternoon and talked about 20 minutes with Joy Battle, the church secretary and pastor’s wife, “rambling on about how the world was evil.”
Pastor Battle called to check on his wife, and she told him Avalos was present. As the pastor approached the office through a courtyard, Avalos left the office and slammed the door. Mrs. Battle heard multiple gunshots and saw her husband fall to the ground. She called 911 immediately.
During investigation, detectives learned that Avalos called a family member on a cell phone, advised there were two bodies at his house and hung up the phone. Police found the body of Denise Potter, 46, lying in a hallway with multiple gunshot wounds.
Amber Avalos, the suspect’s wife who also worked at Bayshore Baptist Church, was located in the laundry room hanging from a cord with severe facial trauma and a gunshot wound to the chest. Prosecutors said in court that Avalos gave a full confession to all three killings.
According to local media covering the service, Joy Battle spoke with composure and grace standing in front of the pulpit.
“I loved my husband dearly and I will grieve him for the rest of my days,” she was quoted by ABC affiliate WWSB in Sarasota, Fla. “But the best way to honor his life, Bayshore, is to continue in this work.”
Family members described Amber Avalos, 32, as “the glue in the backbone of our family.”
She and Andy Avalos were childhood sweethearts and had been together since they were 16. They had six children, ages 4-15, who are now in the care of a relative.
“She worked three jobs and took care of all the children,” her mother told the Bradenton Herald. “He never worked.”
Andy Avalos has a history of gang involvement and abuse of alcohol and drugs and is said never to go anywhere without at least one handgun.
Family members said they knew the couple was having problems, and Amber had been sending her husband to her pastor at Bayshore Baptist Church, where she also worked as nursery/children’s director, for help.
Authorities didn’t say where Andy Avalos was during a 51-hour manhunt, or why he walked onto the back porch of a couple in Pine Haven Mobile Home Park who did not know him. But the couple talked with him for three hours before Avalos finally decided to turn himself in.
A few hours before, Avalos father publicly pleaded for his son to come out of hiding.
“Andy, you know that your mother and myself love you deeply,” said Andy Avalos Sr., a mission pastor at Woodland Baptist Church in Bradenton. “I hope you understand that, and I hope that you understand that for the sake of your children. They don’t understand what’s happening. They are hurting and they feel alone.”
“They are in protective custody and away from the family until you turn yourself in,” he said. “For their sake, son, I am pleading with you to please turn yourself in.”
Potter was a single mother of three who worked with Amber Avalos cleaning houses. Her family believes she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and may have walked over to Avalos’ house when Avalos didn’t arrive to pick her up.
“Had she not gone over there, I don’t think he would have killed her,” her aunt, Rosie Dougherty, told theBradenton Herald.
Second-degree murder is the unlawful killing of a human being without premeditation, sometimes called a “crime of passion” because it is motivated by a sudden impulse like rage rather than a “premeditated design” to kill another person. It is punishable by life in prison.
Avalos’ next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 9.
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