Priest faces ritual killing rap
2004-05-08 10:13
Toledo - A Roman Catholic priest accused of the ritualistic killing of a nun 24 years ago has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder.
Gerald Robinson, his hands resting on a chair as he stood during the brief arraignment hearing on Friday, is accused of the strangling and stabbing death of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl on Easter weekend 1980.
If convicted, Robinson could be sentenced to life in prison. The death penalty was not in effect in Ohio at the time of the killing so he cannot get a death sentence.
"He's holding up well, but I don't want to talk about anything personal," said Robinson's attorney, Alan Konop, after the hearing.
Robinson has been free on $400 000 bail raised by supporters. A pretrial hearing was set for May 24.
Robinson, for a long time a suspect in the death of Pahl, 71, was arrested on April 23.
Pahl's body was discovered in a chapel at Mercy Hospital, covered by an altar cloth. Investigators have described the killing as "ritualistic".
Investigators reopened the murder case in December after the county prosecutor's office received a letter, prosecutors said.
They would not say who sent the letter or what it said.
- AP