Jury Sees Murder Scene; Opening Statements Given in Priest's Trial
By David Yonke
Toledo Blade
April 22, 2006
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060422/NEWS02/60422005
The prosecution said yesterday that it plans to prove that the blade of a letter opener belonging to the Rev. Gerald Robinson, charged with murdering a nun in 1980, fits one of 31 stab wounds "like a key in a lock."
Dean Mandros, a Lucas County assistant prosecutor, told a Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury that the Toledo Roman Catholic priest lied to investigators when he said he never left his living quarters in Mercy Hospital on the morning of April 5 — Holy Saturday — when the nun was found dead in the chapel's sacristy.
The prosecution plans to produce witnesses who saw Father Robinson in the chapel about the time of the murder and who heard footsteps running down the hallway and stopping in front of the priest's apartment.
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From left, defense attorney Alan Konop,Rev. Gerald Robinson and defense attorneys Nicole Khoury and Jack Callahan. Photo by The Blade |
Alan Konop, one of Father Robinson's four defense attorneys, said in his opening statement that there are "important inconsistencies and discrepancies" in the circumstantial evidence on which the state is basing its case.
He said DNA tests of a foreign substance found on the nun's underwear did not match Father Robinson's DNA, and that tests of "foreign material" taken from the nun's fingernails contained a "male chromosome in the mix and — guess what — it's not Father Robinson's DNA."
He called the state's evidence and testimony "pieces of a puzzle" that will not fit together.
"We've all had that experience with a puzzle," Mr. Konop said. "You can't quite put it together and you jam and jam and jam and it doesn't fit. That's exactly the situation we find here. Exactly."
After the two sides finished opening statements, the 12 jurors and four alternates were taken by bus to the former hospital, now a college, about 1? miles from the Lucas County Courthouse where the trial is being held.
They were led on a 40-minute tour of the complex that included stops at the chapel, sacristy, and a small two-room apartment where Father Robinson lived in 1980 when he was Mercy Hospital's chaplain.
During the tour, court Bailiff Tanya Butler read from a carefully worded script that had been approved by attorneys for both sides, telling jurors to pay attention to certain places and details of the hospital complex without explaining their connections to the case.
The jurors were told, for example, to note the size of two rooms at the end of a hallway, but were not informed that it was where Father Robinson had lived.
They also were guided through the sacristy but were not told that it was where Sister Margaret Ann's body was found.
The 10 women and six men in the jury listened attentively to the script and appeared to be taking mental notes as they walked up and down several flights of stairs, through long hallways, a sweltering basement corridor, and into the chapel and sacristy.
Some parts of the hospital have been remodeled since the murder, including a passageway now bricked off that in 1980 provided a short path between the chapel and Father Robinson's apartment.
The chapel itself, brightly lighted with beige marble altars, has been expanded and a hallway leading to it rerouted, although the front half of the room and the sacristy are "essentially unchanged," Ms. Butler said.
Sister Margaret Ann had gone into the 11-by-17-foot sacristy early on Holy Saturday morning to prepare for the evening services.
Mr. Mandros, in his opening statement, said he will not try to prove a motive, only that Father Robinson is guilty of murder.
Using a "smart board" showing photos of Sister Margaret Ann and Father Robinson and a hospital floor plan, Mr. Mandros gave a thorough and matter-of-fact outline of the prosecution's case against the 68-year-old cleric.
He said a hospital employee who worked the night shift and prayed before leaving work every morning at 7 found the chapel doors locked "for the first and only time" on the day of the murder.
"The chapel doors were locked because something inconceivable was about to take place.
"There were two people inside this chapel. One, Sister Margaret Ann, who was working on the altar, preparing it for the evening service.
"It was in the sacristy that someone took her by the neck and choked her," Mr. Mandros said.
"The killer choked her so hard that two bones inside her neck broke. He choked her so hard that the blood vessels in her eyes burst."
According to the prosecution, the nun was "on the verge of death, but not quite" at this point.
The assailant then placed Sister Margaret Ann on the sacristy floor and covered her body with an altar cloth.
"After doing that, he stabbed her over the heart nine times. Nine piercings of her flesh in the shape of an upside-down cross," Mr. Mandros said.
"And after all that, he does some more. He takes off the altar cloth. He stabs her 22 more times."
The attacker was still not through, Mr. Mandros said.
"He carefully rolls up her dress, her smock, up over her dress, he pulls her girdle, her underpants, her hose, down to her ankles. He leaves her exposed, naked, stretched out like in a coffin on the sacristy floor. Only then is the killer done."
About 7:35 a.m., according to Mr. Mandros, a maintenance worker heard footsteps "that ran and stopped right in front of the defendant's door."
Shortly after, a nun entering the sacristy saw Sister Margaret Ann's body and "let out a scream that was heard throughout the building."
Mr. Konop said Father Robinson was subjected to "the humiliation and degradation" of an arrest by Lucas County's cold-case squad before the state had gathered sufficient evidence to prove its case.
He said prosecutors were scouring for information and consulting new experts as recently as February.
The two sides spent a total of 45 minutes outlining their cases in what is believed to be the first time in the United States that a Roman Catholic priest has been charged in the murder of a Roman Catholic nun.
The trial, expected to last three to four weeks, resumes Monday morning with testimony from some of the 40 expert witnesses.
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