Coroner: Priest’s letter opener fits wound

TOLEDO, Ohio - Investigators attempted to link bloodstains on an altar cloth and stab wounds on a nun’s body to a letter opener found in the apartment of a priest charged with killing her.

During testimony Tuesday at the Rev. Gerald Robinson’s murder trial, prosecutors focused on the sword-shaped, silver letter opener and showed jurors five photos of the stained altar cloth.

Testimony was to resume Wednesday morning.

Robinson, 68, is accused in the 1980 slaying of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was stabbed to death and choked in a hospital chapel the day before Easter. Authorities have not disclosed a motive.

Robinson was a hospital chaplain who worked closely with Sister Pahl and presided over her funeral.

Police found the letter opener, which had a diamond-shaped cross-section, while searching Robinson’s room.

Detective Terry Cousino testified he had never seen a letter opener like it, and tried to find a similar letter opener, even looking at Internet auction sites.

The letter opener was consistent with punctures in the altar cloth, he said. He said mirror-image blood stains indicated the cloth had been folded in half over the nun’s body.

The pattern of punctures indicated the killer may have used a template or guide, according to Cousino, who displayed a graphic showing a cross-shaped template fitting neatly between the linen punctures.

Prosecutors showed jurors an enlarged photo of the letter opener inserted into the puncture wound in the 71-year-old Roman Catholic nun’s jaw.

“The fit was so snug,” said Julie Saul, director of the forensic anthropology lab in the Lucas County coroner’s office. “It just seemed to lock into place.”

The first autopsy done the day of Sister Pahl’s slaying showed she died of 31 stab wounds to the face, neck and chest - including nine wounds that authorities have said were in the shape of an upside-down cross. There also was evidence that she had been strangled.

Robinson was a suspect early on because he was near the chapel at the time of the death. It wasn’t until after his arrest two years ago and the exhumation of the nun’s body that investigators discovered the puncture wound in the jaw.

Investigators checked the letter opener for blood in 1980, but tests were inconclusive. The letter opener didn’t have any fingerprints, stains or smudges, said Josh Franks, a retired criminalist.

“It was sumptuously clean. It appeared as if it had been polished,” he said.

Robinson, free on bail, could get life in prison if convicted of murder.

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