In another setback to efforts by convicted Toledo priest, Fr Gerald Robinson, to clear himself of the 1980 murder of Sr Margaret Ann Pahl, the DNA of serial killer Coral Eugene Watts does not match a sample found on the nun's fingernails. Watts, who died of prostate cancer in Jackson, Mich., in 2007 at age 53, confessed to killing a dozen women in Texas and is suspected in the deaths of 80 more women in several states and Canada, the Toledo Blade reports.
The Ohio Innocence Project, which joined Robinson's defense team in April, ordered the latest DNA test comparing Watts' sample with a minuscule amount of male chromosome found on the nun's fingernails.
Results of the DNA test, which costs about $1,500, recently came back negative.
"I would have been shocked" if they matched, said Thomas Staff, an investigator for the Lucas County Prosecutor's Office.
John Donahue, one of Robinson's defense attorneys, also said he had not expected a match.
"To be honest with you, I never gave a thought to Coral Watts as being the killer in this case," he said.
"What we're doing is what should have been done before trial: exercising due diligence to rule people out."
The Perrysburg attorney said he met last week with Robinson at Hocking Correctional Facility in Nelsonville, Ohio, where the priest is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence.
"He's doing well. He's basically found a new ministry," Mr. Donahue said.
"His health is good. People down there love him."
Richard Kerger, another Robinson attorney, said the negative DNA result with Watts does not change the defense's contention that their client is innocent.
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