Arthur Schirmer, a former Pennsylvania pastor, was sentenced on Monday to a life in prison without parole in the fatal killing of second wife in 2008. Schirmer was sentenced nearly two months after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the death of Betty Schirmer. The conviction brought an automatic life sentence, according to CBS News.
Schirmer is also separately charged with killing his first wife Jewel Schirmer in 1999. He also awaits trial in that case.
In his conviction, prosecutors successfully proved that Schirmer, 64, clubbed Betty on the head with a crowbar, then "loaded her into their car and staged a low-speed accident in an effort to conceal the crime. The former Methodist clergyman took the stand in his own defense and testified that he was driving her to the emergency room for treatment of jaw pain when he swerved to avoid a deer and hit a guard rail," CBS News reported.
The investigation into Betty Schirmer's death prompted police and prosecutors to take another look at Jewel Schirmer's case. Arthur Schirmer has long claimed he was "out for a run" on April 23, 1999, when he returned home to find Jewel Schirmer's body in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement He was charged last September with killing her.
A grand jury has said Schirmer likely used blunt objects to kill both women. The retired clergyman long denied either.
The accident was minor, but his wife suffered multiple skull and facial fractures and died at the hospital. Her death was initially ruled an accident.
The retired clergyman led churches in Lebanon and Reeders, Pennsylvania.,
