By David Yonke
Toledo Blade
March 18, 2008
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080318/NEWS02/803180347
Defense and prosecuting attorneys gave oral arguments yesterday in Toledo priest Gerald Robinson's appeal of his 2006 conviction for the 1980 murder of a nun.
John Donahue of Perrysburg, representing the 69-year-old Catholic priest, argued before a three-judge panel of the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals that his client was denied a fair trial for several reasons, most notably the 24-year gap between the nun's murder and the priest's arrest.
"Have you ever seen anything like this case?" Mr. Donahue asked Judges Mark Pietrykowski, Peter Handwork, and William Skow.
 |
| Robinson |
He cited "the quarter-century delay" before charges were filed; the "pervasive" media coverage of the trial; the national clerical sexual abuse scandal's impact on the case, and the state's references that Sister Margaret Ann Pahl may have been murdered in an occult ritual.
Dean Mandros, a Lucas County assistant prosecutor, said the investigation of the nun's murder continued long after 1980, and the loss of witnesses and documents resulting from the passage of time added to the state's burden.
"We got pounded" over missing witnesses and documents, he said, but "by the time we came to trial, we had almost overwhelming evidence."
Robinson, who is serving 15 years to life in a southern Ohio prison, was not present for the hearing, but his brother, sister-in-law, and a number of supporters were in the gallery.
Sister Margaret Ann was murdered April 5, 1980 - Holy Saturday - in the sacristy of the former Mercy Hospital near downtown Toledo. The 71-year-old nun was choked nearly to death, then stabbed 31 times in the chest, neck, and face.
Robinson was arrested by the county's cold-case squad in April, 2004, and convicted in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on May 11, 2006.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that a letter opener found in Robinson's apartment shortly after the nun's death was the murder weapon.
Mr. Donahue spent much of his allotted 15 minutes yesterday asserting that a pair of scissors missing from the sacristy could have been used to kill the nun. He also raised questions about the Rev. Jerome Swiatecki, a Catholic priest who had served with Robinson as hospital chaplain.
Mr. Donahue said Father Swiatecki, who died in 1996, told police that nothing was missing from the sacristy after the murder, but several nuns said a pair of scissors used to trim candle wicks was missing.
Mr. Donahue also argued that Father Swiatecki, who weighed nearly 300 pounds, was strong enough to strangle the nun and heavy enough to have made the loud footsteps witnesses heard in a hallway after the murder.
Mr. Mandros said Father Swiatecki had eaten breakfast in a dining room with Sister Madeline Marie Gordon, after which the nun went straight to the chapel. She didn't leave that room until she unlocked the sacristy door and found Sister Margaret Ann's body on the floor.
Mr. Mandros also cited contradictions in Robinson's statements. The priest told police he never left his room at the hospital until receiving a phone call that a nun had been killed. But three witnesses said during the trial they saw Robinson near the chapel about the time of the murder.
Judge Handwork asked Mr. Donahue to explain the letter opener's tip fitting a wound in the nun's jawbone, and Mr. Donahue said it fit in only one direction.
Judge Skow asked the defense attorney if an "ancient documents" exception, allowing 1980 reports to be used in the trial, had "invited error." Mr. Donahue said it had.
Judge Pietrykowski said the panel would issue its ruling "as soon as possible."
Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.comor 419-724-6154.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.