Life sentence for Pa. pastor Arthur Schirmer for killing second wife

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Arthur Schirmer walks into court to hear the verdict in his murder trial on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013.

/ AP Photo/Pocono Record, David Kidwell

(CBS/AP) STROUDSBURG, Pa. - Arthur Schirmer, a former Pennsylvania pastor, was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole in the fatal bludgeoning of his second wife in 2008.

Schirmer, 64, was sentenced in Monroe County Court nearly two months after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the death of Betty Schirmer. The conviction brought an automatic life sentence.

Schirmer is charged separately with killing his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, in 1999. He awaits trial in that case.

Prosecutors said he clubbed Betty Schirmer on the head with a crowbar, tehn loaded her into their car and staged a low-speed accident in an effort to conceal the crime. The former Methodist clergyman took the stand in his own defense and testified that he was driving her to the emergency room for treatment of jaw pain when he swerved to avoid a deer and hit a guard rail.

A jury deliberated about 90 minutes before returning its verdict.

Local police initially believed Betty Shirmer's July 2008 death was the result of a 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.

Authorities ultimately concluded the fender-bender could not have cause Betty Schirmer's extensive head and brain injuries. Police also found her blood on the garage floor, along with evidence that someone had tried to clean it up.

The investigation into Betty Schirmer's death prompted police and prosecutors to take another look at Jewel Schirmer's case. Arthur Schirmer has long claimed he was out for a run on April 23, 1999, when he returned home to find Jewel Schirmer's body in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement steps. He was charged last September with killing her.

Schirmer has maintained his innocence in both cases.

Complete coverage of Arthur Schirmer on Crimesider

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