Gerald Robinson: Three witnesses recall seeing priest at murder scene

Defense attorneys expected to begin their case today

Toledo- Three witnesses Thursday placed a priest near the scene of a nun’s slaying, bolstering prosecution claims that the Rev. Gerald Robinson was there and lied about it.

The three were among seven witnesses that prosecutors presented before resting their case. Altogether, the state has presented 31 witnesses during seven days of testimony.

Robinson is accused of ritually strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl 26 years ago, in the chapel of a hospital where both worked.

The priest told investigators in 2004 that he was nowhere near the chapel until the nun’s body was discovered and he was summoned there by the hospital administrator.

Leslie Kerner, a former EKG technician, said Thursday that she saw Robinson outside the chapel about 7 a.m. the day of the slaying. Forensic experts believe the killing occurred between 7 and 7:30 a.m.

The body was found in the chapel sacristy after 8 a.m. Medical personnel rushed there in a vain attempt to revive the nun. It was then that Robinson said he was summoned.

But Dr. Jack Baron, a resident at the hospital in 1980, said he saw a priest who matched Robinson’s description as the doctor was rushing to give aid.

The priest was looking over his shoulder, running. “He gave me a stare. I’ll never forget that. It went right through me.”

Whoever Baron saw did not go to the chapel, but went toward stairs that led to Robinson’s modest quarters - before Robinson said the administrator summoned him as he was toweling off from a shower.

Grace Jones, a lab technician in 1980, said she saw one of the two priests assigned to the hospital about 8 a.m., with a duffel bag.

She was asked which one and she said “the one over there,” pointing to Robinson as he sat among his four defense lawyers.

Robinson has not taken the witness stand. But his account was given when prosecutors played a video recording of a 2004 interrogation.

Prosecutors have presented testimony about how Robinson’s letter opener matched the nun’s injuries, especially one stab wound to her jaw. Its shape also matched blood stains on an altar cloth that had been placed over Pahl’s body while she was stabbed, and a medallion on the letter opener’s handle matches an image found on the cloth - as if rubber-stamped in the dying woman’s blood.

But the most dramatic testimony came Monday from a Chicago-based priest who is an expert in the occult, ritual and the laws of the church.

The Rev. Jeffrey Grob testified that there were many signs of a ritual designed to mock the church and defile the nun - too many for the images to have been random acts. And he said the average Catholic would not have the knowledge of these symbols, but a nun, priest or seminarian would.

The images included nine stab wounds over the nun’s heart perfectly defining an upside-down cross - a symbol favored by satanists, the priest said.

Robinson’s lawyers are expected to begin their case today. They have said the evidence against Robinson is contradictory and incomplete, and have challenged investigators on the witness stand because of records that have been lost.

The jury, which was empaneled after an exhaustive weeklong process last month, is likely to begin deliberations by the middle of next week.

If convicted, the 68-year-old Robinson would receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison with parole eligibility after 15 years.

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