TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
Jurors deliberated about four hours yesterday before calling it a night and will return this morning to the Lucas County Courthouse to resume reviewing dozens of items of evidence and discussing testimonies in the Rev. Gerald Robinson's murder trial.
Attorneys wrapped up their cases with nearly four hours of closing arguments yesterday in what is believed to be the first U.S. trial of a U.S. Roman Catholic priest charged with murdering a Roman Catholic nun.
Before the closing arguments, the prosecution called two rebuttal witnesses to dispute contentions that tests conducted on the victim's exhumed body may have compromised evidence.
For the first time in the trial, which began April 21 in Judge Thomas Osowik's court, the prosecution yesterday suggested that Father Robinson, now 68, choked and stabbed Sister Margaret Ann Pahl to death on April 5, 1980 - Holy Saturday - in the sacristy of Mercy Hospital because he was angry at her and mad at God.
Posted by kshaw at May 11, 2006 07:13 AM