April 26, 2006

Expert: Marks on slain nun's body likely came from priest's letter opener

TOLEDO (OH)
Court TV

By Harriet Ryan
Court TV
TOLEDO, Ohio — A bloody imprint of the U.S. Capitol connects a Catholic priest to the scene of a nun's murder, a prosecution witness testified Wednesday.

An expert in bloodstain analysis told jurors that a faint, dime-sized stain on an altar cloth covering the victim's body matches an outline of the domed building on a medallion affixed to the priest's letter opener.

Prosecutors contend the Rev. Gerald Robinson used the dagger-shaped opener to stab Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl in a hospital chapel in 1980.

Paulette Sutton, the director of investigations at the University of Tennessee at Memphis, said it was highly unlikely the mark came from anything other than the letter opener, a souvenir from a wax museum in Washington, D.C., that Robinson kept in his desk drawer.

Posted by kshaw at April 26, 2006 04:10 PM