TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Two times more than 20 years apart, the Rev. Gerald Robinson told investigators that he never left his apartment at Mercy Hospital the morning a nun was found slain in 1980 until he was called about the killing.
But Lucas County prosecutors wrapped up their murder case against the priest yesterday by calling two witnesses who testified they saw Father Robinson in a hallway near Mercy Hospital’s chapel shortly before — and soon after — Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found dead in the adjacent sacristy.
A third witness testified he did not know Father Robinson at the time but added that the defendant fit the description of the priest he saw while racing to respond medically to the fatally wounded nun.
Leslie Kerner, a former EKG technician at Mercy, said she arrived for work about 6:50 a.m. on April 5, 1980 — Holy Saturday. After punching the time clock, she said she looked down a hallway and saw Father Robinson standing near the open doors of the chapel.