March 18, 2018 - Hillsborough County, Florida
Hillsborough County Sherriff's office detective, Mike Blair responded to a scene in which 33 year old Kenyatta Barron was shot and beaten to death, her 9 year old disabled daughter, Ron'Nievya Oneal, was slain with a hatchet, and her 8 year old son, Ronnie Oneal IV was slashed and stabbed multiple times. Gasoline was spread around the home and the victims before being lit on fire. Young Ronnie was flown to an area hospital and miraculously survived his wounds and burns which would require skin grafting over 30 percent of his body and placed in the intensive care unit.
The perpetrator of such a heinous act was Ronnie Oneal III - the children's father and Kenyatta's boyfriend.
After that initial night, Mike Blair was involved on a limited bases with the case, but another detective working it mentioned to Mike that he learned young Ronnie was a football fan. Compassion stirred in Mike, and he called on contacts that he had with the local NFL team. Through the team's generosity, Mike obtained various team paraphernalia for Ronnie. Mike, along with team representatives and the gifts, visited Ronnie in his hospital room on March 30th.
After the short visit, Mike was the last leaving the room but Ronnie grabbed his hand. Ronnie asked Mike if he could stay and watch a movie with him. Telling Ronnie he had to go back to work, he promised he would return that evening and watch a movie with him. That evening had been a planned date-night for Mike and his wife, Danyel. Their date-night took place, but the venue changed to include young Ronnie in his hospital room watching the Power Rangers movie.
The lady who had been court assigned as Ronnie's guardian ad litem appeared that evening as well. Mike gave his phone number to her and told her to call him if there was anything Ronnie ever needed.
Five months later, the Blairs got a phone call from the guardian. She said that Ronnie desperately needed a foster home after having had two failed placements already. In the intervening time for whatever reasons, the foster homes had failed to take Ronnie to a number of his medical appointments. The guardian asked, "Do you know anybody that could take him? There will be a lot of medical appointments."
Mike, without consulting Danyel but certain of his wife's response, replied, "Just bring him to our house. We'll take him." The Blairs were parents to five children aged 15 to 23, but had talked in the past about fostering or adopting. They believe God had been preparing their hearts. Without hesitation Mike and Danyel wanted to be parents to Ronnie too. Ronnie was brought to the Blair family home with nothing but the clothes he wore.
The family has been incredible in taking Ronnie into their home and fully making him a family member. Obviously that doesn't mean that the weight of memories from Ronnie's past doesn't still weigh on him at times. Consistent therapy, love and reassurances from his new family, and a mantra of "I am safe, I am loved, and I am part of this family" that he is encouraged to repeat whenever he's struggling have helped bring him a long way.
During the 2021 trial, Kenyatta Barron's sister Daisatta, summed it up in her condemnation of Oneal from the witness stand, telling him, "You were sent to kill, steal and destroy like the devil himself." echoing Jesus' words that highlights there are only two options available to us: life or death.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
(John 10:10)
Although the title indicates the Blair family are heroes and I have thus far only spoken of Mike and Danyel's remarkable leap into action, young Ronnie (now a Blair himself) is a hero in his own right.
At the trial, Ronnie testified from a remote location to what he witnessed that night. Oneal, acting as his own counsel, was allowed to question Ronnie. He asked "Did I hurt you that night?" to which Ronnie replied, "Yes." "How did I hurt you?" Oneal asked. Ronnie replied matter-of-factly, "You stabbed me."
Can you imagine young 11 year old Ronnie facing his father - his attacker - the person who should have been his loving protector but instead violently murdered his mother and sister in front of him and tried to murder him too? Bravely, young Ronnie faced his father and spoke the truth of what happened that night. Heroically, he faced his greatest pain and fear and ensured justice for his mother and sister.
Oneal was convicted of two counts of first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, arson, and several other related charges. After only a few hours of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and Oneal was sentenced to 3 consecutive lifetimes plus 90 years.
Ronnie fondly remembers his mother and sister, and is encouraged to, but he began referring to Mike and Danyel as dad and mom of his own choice. In an interview from 2021 Ronnie stated, "I go to a different church, I have a different brother and sister, different mom and dad, different house, but it's pretty cool to be with them," Ronnie said. "They are really nice people. They are the best moms and dads, and they really take care of me. There is no one else better than them."
Although born of unspeakable tragedy, this story is a picture of how God forever brings people into His family through Jesus' sacrificial love. We are separated from a perfect and holy God by even the smallest sin, and we have no way of removing the stain of sin from ourselves. We are lost, suffering, and dying not just a physical death, but an eternal spiritual death.
But Jesus, God who become man, lived a perfectly sinless life, was crucified as "the Lamb who came to take away the sin of the world", and through His sacrifice and taking our sins upon Himself, we can become forever made in good-standing as children of God as Jesus' righteousness is imparted to us as if it were our own.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23)
It isn't a matter of cleaning our lives up before we come to God for forgiveness. It can't work that way because we can never clean ourselves into perfection. It doesn't matter who we are, where we are, or what we've done, God's grace and mercy is the only thing to restore us. If we come to Him with repentance and contrite hearts, He will forgive us and erase all sins from us so they will never be held against us again.
But it is a choice we have to earnestly and consciously make - to forsake our selfish and ungodly desires that are contrary to the Word of God, to follow Jesus, and to no longer live our lives simply for ourselves and our own pleasures. To accept Him is to fully accept Him. He won't accept you halfway, so you can't accept Him halfway. Eternal life doesn't operate on a spectrum.
He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
(John 1:10-13)
Heroes come in all shapes, sizes, seasons, shades, and strengths. What an amazing display of the love of Christ toward Ronnie from the entire Blair family in response to such a heinous showing of demonic hatred from Satan enacted by Oneal. In taking young Ronnie into their family, the Blairs demonstrated the second greatest commandment because of their observance of the greatest commandment:
And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
(Matthew 22:37-38 - Also recorded in Mark 12:29-31, Luke 10:27)
And in the end?.... Another, higher, eternal judgement.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then He will sit on his glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me.’
Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”"
(Matthew 25:31-46)
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