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Detective: In wake of nun’s murder, accused priest sought Valium
TOLEDO, Ohio — A Catholic priest standing trial for the murder of a nun 26 years ago got a prescription for Valium the day of the brutal slaying in a hospital chapel, a retired detective testified Friday.
Officers found a bottle of the anti-anxiety drug in the Rev. Gerald Robinson’s quarters at Mercy Hospital while searching for evidence in the killing of Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl, according to the detective, David Weinbrecht.
The drug was “issued on the day of the murder from the hospital pharmacy,” Weinbrecht told jurors.
The 71-year-old nun was strangled and stabbed to death on the morning of April 5, 1980, in a murder prosecution witnesses have described as ritualistic.
Weinbrecht, who retired from the Toledo Police Department in 1994, was called to the stand by Robinson’s defense to address minor discrepancies in police reports he authored. Much of what he said, however, appeared to benefit the prosecution.
Under cross-examination by a prosecutor, Weinbrecht, one of the main investigators to work the case in 1980, testified that “a top priority” was to determine the location of priests and nuns in the hospital at the time of the murder and eliminate them as suspects if possible.
“Was there one person with a religious background whose whereabouts you could not verify?” prosecutor Dean Mandros asked.
The witness nodded.
“Father Robinson,” he replied.
Robinson, now 68 and retired from the priesthood, faces a potential life sentence if convicted of a single count of murder. He maintains his innocence.
Under questioning by a defense attorney, Weinbrecht recounted a nun telling him shortly after the murder that a pair of scissors used to cut candle wicks was missing from the chapel. Prosecutors maintain the murder weapon was a letter opener the priest kept in his desk drawer, but the defense has suggested the missing scissors might be responsible for the 31 stab wounds suffered by the victim.
Weinbrecht said the nun provided him with a pair of scissors similar to the missing pair and he took them to a police criminalist and an assistant coroner for analysis.
Defense attorney Alan Konop suggested the experts found the scissors a possible match for the murder weapon. Weinbrecht agreed that the criminalist deemed the scissors “similar in size” to the murder weapon, but he said the assistant coroner cast doubt on the scissors.
“She stated the wounds to the victim’s face appeared to have been made with a weapon sharper than a pair of scissors,” Weinbrecht said.
Jurors had not previously heard that the medical examiner believed the scissors could not have made some of the wounds.
Testimony resumes Monday. Jurors are to begin deliberating the priest’s fate next week.
The trial is being shown live on Court TV Extra.
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