Elderly Nun Killed For A Cell Phone

(AP)  An ex-convict charged with killing a Catholic nun who had taken him in at a halfway house stole her cell phone and traded it for what turned out to be fake drugs, police said.

Detectives say Craig Lynch killed Sister Karen Klimczak when she walked in on him as he was stealing the phone from her room at the Bissonette House, a halfway house for former prison inmates.

Lynch, 36, sobbed during his arraignment Tuesday on second-degree murder charges.

He waived his right to a felony hearing and asked the judge for permission to represent himself but was denied.

Lynch, who had lived at the converted former rectory nine days, told investigators the death was an accident and that he was high on drugs when it happened.

"He's in her room committing a crime, he hears her coming. He hides, grabs her from behind," said Detective Sgt. James Lonergan. An autopsy listed the cause of death as strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Lynch then took the phone to a known drug area and exchanged it for a bag of crack cocaine, "which turned out to be bunk," Lonergan said.

Investigators believe Klimczak's body remained at Bissonette House while Lynch arranged to dispose of it across the street from his mother's house, about five miles away.

"He went to a shed behind a vacant house and dug a shallow grave, then he brought the body there and put it in the grave," Lonergan said.

Lynch led police to Klimczak's body late Monday as 600 people were praying for the nun's safe return at a vigil.

Klimczak, who spent more than 20 years helping former prison inmates transition into society, had not been seen since late Friday.

Authorities suspected foul play when she missed Easter services and her clothing was found in trash bins.

Lynch was released from the Wyoming County Correctional Facility on Jan. 6 after serving time for two car thefts in 2002 and 2003, but returned after testing positive for cocaine days later, said Scott Steinhardt, spokesman for the state Division of Parole.

He was rereleased April 5 and moved into the halfway house. He had last met with a parole officer two days before Klimczak's death and passed a drug test, Steinhardt said.

Lynch's criminal record also includes a 1997 conviction for trying to run over a police officer with a stolen car and leading police on a high-speed chase, state prisons spokeswoman Linda Foglia said.