STROUDSBURG, Pa., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A Monroe County, Pa., jury determined a former pastor was guilty of first-degree murder in the 2008 bludgeoning of his second wife.
The jury also determined Tuesday 64-year-old Arthur Schirmer was guilty of tampering with evidence for staging a car crash as a reason for the death, The Scranton Times-Tribune reported Wednesday.
On one side of the Stroudsburg courtroom, Schirmer's daughters and fiancee wept while relatives of Betty Jean Schirmer cheered and clapped when the verdict was read, the Times-Tribune said.
The jury was out less than two hours before announcing its verdict against Schirmer, who also awaits trial in the 1999 death of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer.
In the 2008 death of his second wife, Schirmer maintained she was fatally injured when he swerved their vehicle to avoid striking a deer and hit a guardrail. However, prosecutors used blood analysis and forensic evidence to argue Schirmer beat his wife to death with a metal object.
The prosecution also compared the circumstances in the 2008 death to the 1999 death of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, the Times-Tribune said. She supposedly died when she fell down the stairs in the rectory at Bethany United Methodist Church in Lebanon County where Schirmer was pastor until April 1999.
Murder charges in that incident were filed against Schirmer in Lebanon County last year after Pocono Township police detective James Wagner recognized similarities in the two cases.
Wagner said he believes Schirmer bludgeoned Jewel Schirmer as well and fabricated the story that she fell down the stairs while vacuuming.
