Priest convicted of killing nun 26 years ago

A jury in Toledo, Ohio, today convicted a priest of murdering a nun a day before Easter in 1980 in a hospital chapel, a killing that prosecutors say was steeped with religious ritualism because of the pattern of her stab wounds.

The nun was stabbed through an altar cloth with the punctures forming an upside down cross and anointed with a smudge of her blood on the forehead to humiliate her in death, prosecutors said.

The Rev Gerald Robinson, a Roman Catholic chaplain at the hospital, worked closely with Sister Margaret Ann Pahl and presided at her funeral. He was a suspect early on but was not charged until two years ago.

Judge Thomas Osowik immediately sentenced Robinson, 68, to the mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison.

The jury deliberated for six hours before convicting him of murder.

Robinson was convicted of killing Sister Pahl while she was preparing the chapel for Easter services at Mercy Hospital on April 5, 1980. She was choked and then stabbed 31 times.

Prosecutors suggested that Robinson’s relationship with the nun, a strict taskmaster, was strained and that he had reached a breaking point with her.

The verdict came after nine days of testimony during which witnesses linked a sword-shaped letter opener found in Robinson’s room with the nun’s wounds and blood stains found on the altar cloth that covered her body.