April 20, 2006

Final jury selections today in priest's trial

TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

Opening arguments are set to begin tomorrow morning in the high-profile murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, accused of killing a Toledo nun on Holy Saturday, 1980.

Lucas County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Osowik and prosecution and defense attorneys are scheduled to make their final jury selections today, picking 12 jurors and four alternates for a trial that is expected to last three to four weeks.

After opening arguments, the jury is scheduled to travel to the former Mercy Hospital, now a college, and its sacristy, where the murder took place. They also will visit the apartment in the hospital annex where Father Robinson, then Mercy's chaplain, lived.

The first phase of jury selection took three days as 85 people were individually interviewed. Of the 99 in the original jury pool, 28 were excused, mostly for financial concerns over being away from work for up to a month.

Posted by kshaw at April 20, 2006 02:45 PM