Priest convicted in nun's slaying

By John Seewer

The Associated Press

TOLEDO, Ohio — The Rev. Gerald Robinson cannot celebrate Mass, cannot anoint the sick and dying. That didn't keep the retired priest from wearing his collar every day of his murder trial.

That symbol was at odds with everything jurors convicted him of doing to a 71-year-old nun in a hospital chapel 26 years ago.

Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, her chest riddled with stab wounds in the shape of an upside-down cross, was found dead, with blood on her forehead as if in a mock anointing, and with her arms and legs straight in what witnesses described as ritualistic fashion.

The state's case came down to the proposition that no one else could have committed the grisly crime. Robinson was the only one with the knowledge of ritual, with the animus toward Pahl and with no plausible explanation for his whereabouts, prosecutors said.

Robinson, 68, was immediately sentenced to the mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison and led away in handcuffs after a trial in which forensic experts matched the victim's wounds to a distinctive, sword-shape letter opener found in the priest's room.

Pahl was choked and then stabbed 31 times while she was preparing the Mercy Hospital chapel for Easter services on April 5, 1980. Robinson, who had worked closely with Pahl as the hospital chaplain, presided at her funeral Mass.