Pastor’s murder trial continues


January 9, 2013 at 8:39a.m.

Pastor’s murder trial continues

STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Prosecutors will be continuing their case against a retired northeastern Pennsylvania pastor charged with killing both of his wives.

Monroe County prosecutor Michael Mancuso told a jury Tuesday that 64-four-year-old Arthur “A.B.” Schirmer repeatedly hit Betty Jean Schirmer in the head with a metal object in 2008, then staged a car accident in a bid to cover it up.

Mancuso says the plot unraveled a few months later when a member of Schirmer’s congregation committed suicide in the church office after learning Schirmer was having a relationship with the congregant’s wife, the church secretary.

Prosecutors are set to continue their case Wednesday.

Schirmer also stands accused of killing his first wife, Jewel, in 1999. A trial date hasn’t been set in that case. Schirmer has pleaded innocent in both cases.