Defendant’s Family Reacts To Sentence By Fawn Roark The conclusion of the three week murder trial involving the murder of a local woman, 48-year-old Deborah Sturgill Veler, in her home on Sept. 22nd, 2003 concluded recently in Jefferson with Christopher Edward Goss, 30, being sentenced to death. The Goss family released a statement last week about their reactions to the situation. “We have had an humbling experience all through this. I guess the best way to put it is that our faith in God has helped us get through this whole ordeal. We fully accept and realize that justice has to be done and we believe in equal justice for everyone. We feel like it is a terrible, terrible tragedy for the Veler and Sturgill family as well as for ourselves. Our heart goes out to them and we are praying for them all the time. This is not about hate or revenge – it is about forgiveness. We must all forgive one another so Christ can forgive us,” Jim Goss, Chris Goss’s father explained on behalf of the Goss family. “We remain very much concerned about the well-being of both families. We realize what a tragedy this was regardless of which family it involved. No one knows how the other family feels because we can’t be in one another’s shoes. Our family is dedicated to always being truthful when called upon and we told everything possible that we knew. We hold no ill feelings against anyone. “With Chris being our son, we still love him as they loved their mother and grandmother. He is still our biological son and we try to look at both sides of this. Nobody wins here – it is a terrible loss for them and no winner comes out of it. We continue to pray for their family as long as we live. We want people to know that we really care and we just want them to know how deeply, deeply sorry we are.”