Ohio priest found guilty of nun's murder

TOLEDO, Ohio - A 68-year-old Catholic priest has been found guilty in the 1980 murder of an elderly nun, a crime that prosecutors said had Satanic undertones and may have been covered up by church leaders.

The Rev. Gerald Robinson appeared stony-faced as the verdict was read, and he blinked repeatedly and glanced at his lawyers before being led away in handcuffs. The jury deliberated less than seven hours.

He was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison by Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Osowik, who gave Robinson 30 days to appeal.

Robinson had been free on bail raised by supporters since his arrest in 2004. He had been relieved of his priestly duties by the Toledo diocese since then but remained a priest, wearing his clerical collar throughout the two-week trial.

The crime occurred in the sacristy adjoining the hospital chapel in downtown Toledo on the Saturday before Easter in 1980. Investigators said the nun, Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was strangled and then stabbed, with nine wounds on her chest forming the shape of an inverted cross, a well-recognized Satanic symbol.

An altar cloth was draped over her half-naked body, which was posed as if she had been sexually assaulted.

"It was about how he could humiliate her the most," prosecutor Dean Mandros said in closing arguments. "He left a message for everyone to see ... maybe to God himself."

Claudia Vercellotti, a local leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests who had helped reopen the case, said "I'm devastated it took the horrific death of a Catholic nun to bring vicarious justice to all survivors.

One of Robinson's supporters, crying after the verdict was read, said to Vercellotti, "I hope you rot in hell!"

The investigation in 1980 initially centered on Robinson, the hospital's chaplain and a priest of the Toledo Catholic Diocese.

A retired police detective testified that his interrogation of Robinson was interrupted by a superior, who was accompanied by a high-ranking church official. The now-retired deputy chief ordered Robinson released and case reports sent to him.

No one was charged, and Robinson presided over Pahl's funeral Mass.

The case was reopened in 2003 after prosecutors obtained a letter from an unidentified woman charging that Toledo priests including Robinson had molested her and engaged in Satanic rituals. She turned to Vercellotti after the diocese ignored her pleas for help.

"The steel armor of cover-up that's been so pervasive in my diocese has finally been cracked," Vercellotti said.

Prosecutors refused to comment on whether church leaders might face charges for obstructing the investigation at the time of the murder or if they withheld evidence after it was reopened.

"We weren't anxious to be on the other side of the church," prosecutor Mandros said.

Robinson stabbed the nun with his letter opener, a miniature sword, based on blood splatter patterns and a wound in her jawbone after her body was exhumed, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Robinson was motivated by anger at what he said was Pahl's domineering personality that culminated in her complaints about how he had conducted a Good Friday service the night before the murder.

Robinson also lied repeatedly to investigators, telling them at one point he had heard the murderer's confession.

Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair said in a statement that he hoped the trial's conclusion "will bring some measure of healing for all those affected by the case."

- REUTERS