Priest convicted of murdering nun
Houston Chronicle
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Cleveland, Ohio (US):
A priest was found guilty on Thursday of murdering a nun 26 years ago in what another priest testified was a ritual intended to defile the nun.
The defendant, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, showed no emotion as the jury verdict was read in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in Toledo, Ohio. Judge Thomas J. Osowik sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.
Robinson's lawyer said he would appeal the verdict, which the jury handed up after seven hours of deliberations.
The body of the nun, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was found on April 5, 1980, in the chapel at Mercy Hospital in Toledo. She had been preparing the Eucharist for Easter services. Her killer laid an altar cloth across her body before stabbing her 31 times, including nine stab wounds to the chest in the shape of an upside-down cross.
The killing was committed by someone with deep understanding of church symbols and rituals, the Rev. Jeffrey Grob of Chicago, an expert on the occult, testified.
"All these things were done to have her die in the most humiliating, degrading way possible for a nun," said Dean Mandros, chief of the criminal division in the Lucas County prosecutor's office.
Prosecutors said Robinson was angry about Pahl's domineering personality and her complaints about how he had conducted a Good Friday service the night before the killing.
As the priest was being questioned by detectives two weeks after the killing, Mandros said, Deputy Police Chief Ray Vetter interrupted the interview and allowed a monsignor to escort Robinson out of police headquarters.
Vetter also requested that detectives give him their reports on the case, Mandros said. Some of those reports were never seen again. Within a month, the case was dropped for lack of evidence.
The investigation was reopened in 2003 after a woman from Toledo approached the Toledo Diocese with accusations that a number of priests, including Robinson, had molested her as a child in a series of rituals, Mandros said.
Houston Chronicle
_____________
Cleveland, Ohio (US):
A priest was found guilty on Thursday of murdering a nun 26 years ago in what another priest testified was a ritual intended to defile the nun.
The defendant, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, showed no emotion as the jury verdict was read in Lucas County Common Pleas Court in Toledo, Ohio. Judge Thomas J. Osowik sentenced him to 15 years to life in prison.
Robinson's lawyer said he would appeal the verdict, which the jury handed up after seven hours of deliberations.
The body of the nun, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was found on April 5, 1980, in the chapel at Mercy Hospital in Toledo. She had been preparing the Eucharist for Easter services. Her killer laid an altar cloth across her body before stabbing her 31 times, including nine stab wounds to the chest in the shape of an upside-down cross.
The killing was committed by someone with deep understanding of church symbols and rituals, the Rev. Jeffrey Grob of Chicago, an expert on the occult, testified.
"All these things were done to have her die in the most humiliating, degrading way possible for a nun," said Dean Mandros, chief of the criminal division in the Lucas County prosecutor's office.
Prosecutors said Robinson was angry about Pahl's domineering personality and her complaints about how he had conducted a Good Friday service the night before the killing.
As the priest was being questioned by detectives two weeks after the killing, Mandros said, Deputy Police Chief Ray Vetter interrupted the interview and allowed a monsignor to escort Robinson out of police headquarters.
Vetter also requested that detectives give him their reports on the case, Mandros said. Some of those reports were never seen again. Within a month, the case was dropped for lack of evidence.
The investigation was reopened in 2003 after a woman from Toledo approached the Toledo Diocese with accusations that a number of priests, including Robinson, had molested her as a child in a series of rituals, Mandros said.
