Pa. ex-pastor convicted of murdering his 2nd wife

Tuesday - 1/22/2013, 10:24pm EST

Associated Press

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A former pastor awaiting trial in the 1999 death of his first wife was convicted Tuesday of fatally bludgeoning his second wife nine years later.

Arthur "A.B." Schirmer, 64, was called the "sinister minister" by a prosecutor who said he clubbed Betty Schirmer on the head with a crowbar, then loaded her into their car and staged a low-speed accident in an effort to conceal the crime.

The ex-clergyman was motionless as the jury returned its verdict 90 minutes after getting the case, and he said nothing while being led from the courtroom in handcuffs.

His conviction brought cries and tears of joy from the family of Betty Schirmer, who prosecutors say suffered mortal brain injuries when he attacked her on July 15, 2008.


Schirmer was convicted of first-degree murder and evidence tampering, bringing an automatic life sentence without parole. He maintained his innocence, and his attorney pledged to appeal.

Defense attorney Brandon Reish had insisted in his closing argument that while his client cheated on Betty Schirmer, 56, he had no motive to kill her.



Schirmer, a longtime United Methodist pastor, asserts that Jewel Schirmer, his wife of more than 30 years, fell down the basement stairs while vacuuming. He said he found her with the cord of the vacuum cleaner wrapped around her ankle.

But Monroe County First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso countered, "That's staging 101."




The quick verdict, he added, "says there was something there that was improper that they shouldn't have been considering."


Local police initially treated it as a straightforward car crash. State police began a more thorough investigation months later, when a man committed suicide in Schirmer's office after learning the pastor was in a relationship with his wife, the church secretary.



After Schirmer's guilty verdict, Betty Schirmer's youngest brother, Bill Shertzer, said his family was "down and out and distraught" but "really thankful."

"We've been waiting for this for so long," he said.
