<p>Mario "Tony" Leyva, a self-ordained minister who admitted to molesting more than 100 boys in several states, including Georgia, died in prison from skin cancer, officials said Monday.</p><p>The 58-year-old Leyva died Thursday in the infirmary of Powhatan Correctional Center, and the state medical examiner's office determined he had metastatic melanoma, a form of skin cancer that attacks the body's organs and usually causes death within months.</p><p>Beginning in the 1960s, Leyva crisscrossed the Southeast with his tent revival ministry. Leyva, who called himself "Super Christian," was known to sometimes preach while dressed in a Superman costume.</p><p>He was the founder of Tony Leyva Evangelistic Association Inc. in 1987 in Columbus, Ga. From the 50-room church building, he launched many programs, including "Tony Leyva International Revival Hour" for radio and a brief Sunday morning TV program.</p><p>Leyva chose his victims by targeting disadvantaged families who were the most likely to believe him when he said he wanted to help their sons through tough times.</p><p>In 1988, a Roanoke County jury convicted Leyva of molesting two boys, ages 11 and 14, who testified that Leyva plied them with food and gifts, then drove them in a limousine to a motel room where he performed a sex act on them.</p><p>Leyva was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Soon after, he and two of his associates pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting minors across state lines for prostitution _ charges that stemmed from offering food, money and travel in exchange for sex.</p><p>U.S. District Judge James Turk sentenced him to 20 years in prison, calling Leyva "bad to the core." Church organist Rias Edward Morris and minister Freddie Herring received lesser sentences.</p><p>Prosecutors estimated the three men had molested hundreds of children in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio and Indiana over a span of 25 years.</p><p>"He was something else," said Roanoke County Commonwealth's Attorney Randy Leach, who prosecuted Leyva's state case in 1988. "In our minds, he was a serial child molester and we were glad to do our jobs, but ... he's died and that's enough to be said, I think."</p><p>Leyva was released from federal prison on parole in 2002. The following year, he fled the Roanoke area, where he was required to live under supervision until 2008, and wound up in Haiti. He was captured and returned to prison in Virginia.</p><p>Sherry Lynn Leyva, a member of Leyva's ministry, married him while he was in prison. There was no answer at the most recent telephone number listed for her.</p><p>Leyva's case was written about in a 1996 book entitled "Brother Tony's Boys: The Largest Case of Child Prostitution in U.S. History: The True Story." Author Mike Echols, a California-based child advocate who worked with Leyva's victims to keep him imprisoned as long as possible, died in 2003 while in jail himself for violating probation.</p><p>A message left for Leyva's former attorney, Daniel Crandall, was not immediately returned.</p>
