By David Yonke dyonke@theblade.com
Toledo Blade
May 8, 2006
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060508/NEWS02/305080013
After calling 11 witnesses in two days, the defense rested today in the murder trial of the Rev. Gerald Robinson.
Closing arguments are set for Wednesday morning, after which the jury will begin deliberations in the murder trial of the priest, accused of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on April 5, 1980 — Holy Saturday. She was strangled, then stabbed 31 times in the sacristy of Mercy Hospital.
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| Kathleen Reichs, a forensic anthropologist, testifies for the defense. Photo by The Blade/Andy Morrison |
The prosecution plans to introduce one rebuttal witness, strictly for procedural reasons, and Judge Thomas Osowik said that testimony will be "extraordinarily brief."
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| Dan Davison, of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, testified today. Photo by The Blade/Andy Morrison |
The trial began April 21 in Lucas County Common Pleas Court, with the prosecution calling 31 witnesses to the stand.
Father Robinson, 68, maintains his innocence. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Earlier today, Kathleen Reichs, a forensic anthropologist from Charlotte, N.C., testified that tests done on a wound in Sister Margaret Ann's jawbone
could have damaged the wound itself, compromising the test results.
The prosecution in the trial has said that a letter opener belonging to the priest fit the wound in the slain nun's jawbone like "a key fits a lock." Ms. Reichs, whose writings inspired the FOX-TV show Bones, said sticking the point of the letter opener into the jawbone could change the shape of the defect in the wound.
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| Defense attorneys John Thebes, left, and Alan Konop confer as the Rev. Gerald Robinson listens during his murder trial. Photo by The Blade/Andy Morrison |
The body of the nun was exhumed in May, 2004. The defense team had no representatives at the exhumation, and Ms. Reichs had to base her analysis on photographs and reports.
Under cross-examination, she said it was the first time she ever testified in court without examining evidence firsthand.
Earlier today, the defense attorneys questioned three other forensic scientists about DNA evidence in the 1980 murder, bringing up findings in line with previous testimony that a stain found on the slain nun's underwear and male DNA on her fingernails could not have come from the priest.
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| Meghan Clement of LabCorp in North Carolina testified today about DNA samples on the slain nun's underwear and fingernails. Photo by The Blade/Andy Morrison |
Attorney John Thebes also asked the scientists about a hair found on a hallway door near the chapel on April 5, 1980, which prosecutors never sent to a lab for testing.
Dan Davison, of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, testified that the hair police evidence experts found on the hallway door was a blonde pubic hair that could not have been Father Robinson's.
Chris Anderson, assistant Lucas County prosecutor, asked DNA expert Meghan Clement of LabCorp in North Carolina if DNA samples on the sister's underwear and fingernails could have been contaminated by male DNA by someone who coughed, sneezed, sweated, or even touched Sister Margaret Ann's nails. As in previous court testimony, Ms. Clement said that was possible.
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| Assistant prosecutor Dean Mandros cross-examines Ray Vetter, former Toledo Police deputy chief. Photo by The Blade/Andy Morrison |
The day's testimony opened with retired Toledo Deputy Police Chief Ray Vetter testifying that although he is a Roman Catholic, he always put his work first and never tried to cover up the fact that Father Robinson was the prime suspect in the 1980 murder.
The 36-year Toledo police veteran said he considered Monsignor Jerome Schmit "a close personal friend" and that he asked the monsignor to talk to Father Robinson for moral support.
He said he picked up Monsignor Schmit and brought him to the Safety Building the evening of April 19, 1980, to speak with Father Robinson. He denied that they cut short an interrogation of the priest that night, as other Toledo policemen testified last week.
Deputy Chief Vetter also said he did not recall ordering detectives to give him all three color-coded copies of their reports concerning Sister Margaret Ann's murder. Several key reports have since disappeared.
Ms. Reichs may have been the last defense witness to testify. If so, the prosecution is expected to bring in rebuttal witnesses, and the trial in Lucas County Common Pleas Court could go to the jury tomorrow.
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