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 car crash 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.
“Today, she can finally rest in peace,” said her son, Nate Novack, who thanked prosecutors for “bringing my mom's killer to justice.”
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.
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“Accidents happen,” Reish told jurors. “Sometimes there are no explanations. Car accidents, falling down stairs, falling off ladders. People die in accidents every day.”
Schirmer is charged separately in the 1999 death of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, and awaits trial in Lebanon County.
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.”
Like Betty Schirmer, the prosecutor told jurors in his closing argument, Jewel Schirmer suffered “forceful, hard blows to the back of the head. It was murder, and it was going to happen again.”
The defense had fought to keep testimony about Jewel Schirmer's death out of the trial, but the judge allowed it. Reish said that decision would form the basis of his appeal.
“I think the admission of the circumstances surrounding the death of Jewel Schirmer really did prejudice the case,” he said.
The quick verdict, he added, “says there was something there that was improper that they shouldn't have been considering.”
Schirmer took the stand in his own defense last week and testified that he was driving his second wife to the emergency room for treatment of jaw pain when he swerved to avoid a deer and hit a guard rail.
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.
Authorities ultimately concluded the fender-bender could not have caused 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.
Schirmer contends she was cut while helping him move a wood pile weeks before the crash.
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.
