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Updated May 4, 2006, 5:22 p.m. ET
Prosecutors rest murder case against priest after witnesses deny his alibi


TOLEDO, Ohio — Prosecutors wrapped up their case against a priest accused of murdering a nun Thursday after calling three witnesses who contradicted the cleric's alibi for the killing 26 years ago. Two of the witnesses, both medical technicians, said they saw the Rev. Gerald Robinson outside the hospital chapel where the nun was slain. A third, a doctor, said he ran past a man "in priest's garb" in a hallway as he rushed to render medical aid to the victim.

"I'll never forget the stare that just kind of went right through me. He didn't say a word and continued in the opposite direction," said Jack Baron, a Florida family practice physician who was chief resident at the hospital in 1980, when the murder occurred.

Robinson, 68, claims he was showering in his residence in another building of the Mercy Hospital complex when Sr. Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, was stabbed and strangled to death on April 5, 1980.

In a videotaped interview conducted after his arrest in 2004 and played for jurors earlier this week, Robinson told a cold case detective that he did not leave his quarters that morning until he received a call from a hospital administrator informing him of the nun's death.

A former EKG technician, however, testified Thursday that she saw Robinson, whom she recognized as one of two chaplains at the hospital standing outside the open doors of the chapel at about 7 a.m.

Prosecutors contend the assailant entered the chapel where Sr. Margaret Ann was preparing the altar for Easter services at about 7 a.m., locked the doors and remained in the chapel until about 7:35 a.m., the time a maintenance man heard loud footsteps running from the chapel in the direction of the priest's apartment.

The EKG technician, Leslie Kerner, said she was sure the man she saw outside the chapel was Robinson and not the other chaplain, Rev. Jerome Swiatecki, "because Father Robinson was shorter and had more hair, and Fr. Swiatecki was larger and didn't have much hair."

Another hospital employee, lab worker Grace Jones, said she was waiting for an elevator about half an hour later when she saw "a father" emerge from the chapel carrying a duffle bag.

"I nodded, and he nodded and then went on," she said.

Asked by prosecutor Larry Kiroff "which father" she was referring to, Jones gestured toward the defense table.

"The one over there," she said.

Robinson, who has not shown any emotion during two weeks of testimony, looked back at her impassively.

Baron, the doctor, said he crossed paths with the priest within a few minutes of hearing an 8:15 a.m. call over the hospital public address system for a medical emergency in the chapel,

"He was within 10 feet of me, looking over his shoulder and going in the opposite direction," Baron said.

He said he did not know Robinson at the time of the murder, but the man matched the priest's age, build and hair color.


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