TOLEDO (OH)
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
James Ewinger
Plain Dealer Reporter
Toledo -- Three witnesses laid a foundation Monday for the state's case against a Roman Catholic priest accused of murdering a nun 26 years ago.
It was the first day of testimony in Lucas County Common Pleas Court against the Rev. Gerald Robinson, 68, a suspect almost from the beginning, though he was not arrested and charged until 2004.
He is accused of choking Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on Holy Saturday in 1980, then stabbing her 31 times and leaving her body in the chapel of Toledo's Mercy Hospital, where both worked.
Robbery and rape were ruled out because nothing of value was taken and there was no evidence of a sexual assault, although the nun's body was found with her jumper pulled up and her undergarments down around her ankles. The storm of stab wounds told police that she knew her assailant.