Howard Scott Heldreth, 32, said his views changed when he was 19 as he spent months in an Ohio jail while awaiting trial on rape and kidnapping charges.

Heldreth was in jail for parts of 1992 and 1993, court records show. He eventually pleaded guilty to sexual battery and served time on probation.

Until then, he said Saturday, he believed strongly in evolution, especially the idea that the strong naturally ruled over the weak.

``I basically agreed with everyone trying to kill Terri Schiavo,'' he said, adding that he later accepted Christ and turned his life around.

Heldreth on Saturday declined to discuss the specifics of the incident that led to his jail time. He has written on a Web site that it happened at a college party and involved a young woman there.

The former Naperville resident remains listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender registry, but he is not registered on North Carolina's. The North Carolina registry applies to offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 1996.

Heldreth and his wife, Kathy, are members of Operation Save America, a group that opposes and protests against abortion and homosexuality. Heldreth and his son, Josh, traveled to Florida last week because they felt strongly that Schiavo should be kept alive, Kathy Heldreth said.

Josh Heldreth was charged with trespassing after he tried to deliver the water to Schiavo, who has gone without food or water since March 18, when her feeding tube was removed by court order.

He walked up to sheriff's deputies, carrying a plastic cup and ignored two requests to turn around. Deputies cuffed his hands behind his back and loaded him into a van with 14- year-old twin girls. At the courthouse, the three youngsters were photographed, fingerprinted and released.

``God's with me,'' Josh Heldreth said.