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Thread: Rodney Earl Sanders Sentenced in 2016 MS Murder of Nuns, Paula Merrill and Margaret Held

  1. #11
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Investigator: Suspect confessed to killing 2 nuns

    DURANT, Miss. – A man charged with killing two nuns confessed to investigators that he went into their home, struggled with them, stabbed them to death and stole their car, a state law enforcement agent testified Friday.

    Rodney Earl Sanders, 46, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, is charged with capital murder in the slayings of Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, both 68. Their bodies were found Aug. 25 after they failed to show up at the health clinic where they worked as nurse practitioners in one of the poorest counties in the nation.

    Sanders was arrested Aug. 26. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, he sat quietly by his defense attorney Friday as Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent LeCarus Oliver testified just a few feet away.

    Oliver said Sanders had been staying in a shed across the street from the sisters' home for three days before the slayings. He testified that he was not in the room when Sanders confessed, but Sanders' questioning by other investigators was captured on an audio recording.

    "He did acknowledge killing Paula Merrill and Margaret Held," Oliver testified.

    Sanders told investigators that he went through the back door of the sisters' home, uninvited. Sanders said Merrill saw him first before a struggle took place with both women, Oliver testified.

    Oliver also said Sanders told officers that after stabbing the women, "He washed himself up because his hands were sticky."

    One of Sanders' defense attorneys, Richard Carter III of Kosciusko, asked Oliver if Sanders had revealed a motive for the alleged crime. Oliver said he had not.

    Friday's hearing was to determine whether there is enough evidence against Sanders to send the case to a grand jury, which will consider indictment. Durant Municipal Judge Jim Arnold ruled there is, and he denied Carter's request that bond be set.

    Sanders has been jailed since his arrest on two counts of capital murder, one count of burglary and one count of grand larceny. Arnold also denied bond for Sanders on Aug. 29.

    Oliver testified that a knife was recovered from the shed where Sanders had been staying, and it is among items being tested at the state Crime Lab. He also testified that the nuns' partially clothed bodies were found in the hallway of the home. He said the crime could have occurred late Aug. 24 or early Aug. 25.

    Rape kits are pending at the Crime Lab, Oliver said. Sanders has not been charged with rape, however.

    The nuns' relatives and colleagues have said they oppose the death penalty, including for Sanders. Holmes County District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver said outside court Friday that she had not decided whether to pursue it.

    Under Mississippi law, capital murder is a killing that occurs with at least one other felony, and it is punishable by lethal injection or life in prison.

    The nuns' funerals were Sept. 2. Merrill was buried in Kentucky, where she belonged to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Held was buried in Wisconsin, where she was a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee.

    http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/16...ng-2-nuns.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #12
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    Mississippi autopsy report for 2 slain nuns still unfinished

    JACKSON, MISS. - The Mississippi medical examiner is still working on an autopsy report for two nuns who were killed five months ago in the community where they had done charity work for years.

    Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain told The Associated Press that the report could be finished in the next two or three weeks.

    "The Department of Public Safety is moving as expeditiously as possible without compromising the integrity of the case," Strain said Friday. "The case file is complete with the exception of the complete and final autopsy report from the state medical examiner."

    Holmes County District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver said Thursday that she is waiting for complete information from the medical examiner and results of forensics tests from the state Crime Lab before presenting the case to a grand jury for possible indictment. Both are part of the Department of Public Safety. Strain said the forensics tests are complete.

    The bodies of Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, both 68, were found Aug. 25 in Durant after they failed to show up at the health clinic where they worked as nurse practitioners in Lexington. Both communities are in Holmes County, one of the poorest counties in the nation.

    Rodney Earl Sanders of nearby Kosciusko, Mississippi, was charged with capital murder Aug. 26 and remains jailed without bond. He was 46 when arrested and is now 47.

    The nuns' funerals were Sept. 2. Merrill was buried in Kentucky, where she belonged to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Held was buried in Wisconsin, where she was a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee.

    The nuns' relatives and colleagues have said they oppose the death penalty, including for Sanders.

    Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent LeCarus Oliver — the husband of the district attorney — testified during a hearing Sept. 16 in Durant Municipal Court that Sanders had been staying in a shed across the street from the sisters' home for three days before the slayings. Oliver testified that he was not in the room when Sanders confessed, but Sanders' questioning by other investigators was captured on an audio recording.

    "He did acknowledge killing Paula Merrill and Margaret Held," Oliver testified.

    Sanders told investigators that he went through the back door of the sisters' home, uninvited. Sanders said Merrill saw him first before a struggle took place with both women, Oliver testified.

    One of Sanders' defense attorneys, Richard Carter III of Kosciusko, asked Oliver if Sanders had revealed a motive for the alleged crime. Oliver said he had not.

    Municipal Judge Jim Arnold ruled at the end of the hearing that there was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury.

    Carter did not immediately return a call seeking comment about the case Friday.

    http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/...#storylink=cpy

  3. #13
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Service to remember: Sister found murdered

    By WHAS News

    The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth are marking a somber anniversary. It's been one year since losing a fellow sister who was found murdered in Mississippi.

    Back in 2016, 68-year-old Paula Merrill and Margaret Held were both found murdered inside their home.

    Merrill had been working in Mississippi since the 80's but was a part of Nazareth here in Kentucky located near Bardstown.

    Today her fellow sisters gathered around her grave and honored her good work.

    46-year-old Rodney Earl Sanders was arrested for capital murder in both of those cases. A grand jury is expected to deliver its decision in September or October on whether there's enough evidence for Sanders to stand trial.

    http://www.whas11.com/news/service-t...ered/467330773
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Trial Set for Mississippi Man Indicted in Killing of 2 Nuns

    DURANT, Miss. (AP) — A Feb. 12 trial has been set for a Mississippi man in the 2016 killing of two nuns who worked as nurse practitioners in one of the poorest parts of the U.S.

    Rodney Earl Sanders was indicted on capital murder, sexual assault, burglary and grand larceny. He pleaded not guilty Friday.

    District Attorney Akillie Malone Oliver will not say whether she will seek the death penalty. The victims' families have spoken against it, but Malone Oliver tells The Associated Press that the crimes were harsh.

    Sanders' defense attorney, Alva Taylor, declined to comment. Sanders remains in the Holmes County jail, without bond.

    The bodies of Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, both 68, were found Aug. 25, 2016, in their Durant home after they failed to show up at work.

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ling-of-2-nuns

  5. #15
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Prosecutor: Mississippi man to plead guilty in nuns' deaths

    WTHR

    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi prosecutor says a man charged with killing two nuns in 2016 will plead guilty as part of an agreement that removes the possibility of the death penalty.

    District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver tells The Associated Press on Tuesday she spoke with the victims' families before agreeing that Rodney Earl Sanders could plead guilty to capital murder on June 21. She says the agreement calls for him to be sentenced to life without parole.

    Malone-Oliver says the decision takes into consideration that the two women who were killed, Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill, opposed the death penalty.

    The nuns worked as nurse practitioners in one of the poorest parts of the U.S. They were found stabbed to death in their home after failing to show up for work.

    https://www.wthr.com/article/prosecu...in-nuns-deaths
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

  6. #16
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    Mississippi man pleads guilty in killing of Catholic nuns

    A Mississippi man pleaded guilty Thursday to killing two Roman Catholic nuns in 2016 in an agreement that averts the possibility of the death penalty, which was opposed by the women's families and their religious orders.

    Rodney Earl Sanders made the pleas to two counts of murder in state court in Lexington, blocks away from where Sisters Margaret Held and Paula Merrill had worked as nurse practitioners in a medical clinic.

    Holmes County Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis gave the 48-year-old Sanders two life without parole sentences, plus 30 more years for burglary and car theft, accepting a recommendation from District Attorney Akillie Malone-Oliver.

    Sanders stabbed to death Held and Merrill in the home they shared in nearby Durant. He also pleaded guilty Thursday to burglarizing the house and stealing Held's car. Sanders was also indicted for raping both women, but did not admit guilt on those charges Thursday.

    Shackled hand and foot in a loosely fitting orange jail jumpsuit, Sanders stood at times with his arms crossed before the judge. Lewis at times had to ask him to speak up.

    Sanders was a resident of Kosciusko, but had been temporarily staying in a shed across the street from the sisters in Durant. Sanders told investigators he went through the back door of the sisters' home, uninvited. Sanders said Merrill saw him first before a struggle took place with both women, an investigator testified in 2016. Court filings indicate DNA consistent with Sanders was found under the fingernails of at least one of the women. Prosecutors also say Sanders raped both women.

    Mississippi Bureau of Investigation agent LeCarus Oliver testified in 2016 that Sanders confessed, telling officers that after stabbing the women, "he washed himself up because his hands were sticky." Malone-Oliver said the state also had forensic evidence and eyewitness testimony linking Sanders to the crime.

    Held was a member of the School Sisters of St. Francis, based in Milwaukee. Merrill was a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky.

    The motive for the crime has never been clear.

    "To this day, we continued to ask ourselves about Sister Paula and Sister Margaret's last hours and minutes — how, and especially why," Sister Susan Gatz, president of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, told the judge.

    Both orders and the sisters' relatives have opposed the death penalty for Sanders because it contradicts Catholic teaching.

    "My family is morally and ethically opposed to the death penalty, as were Paula and Margaret," said Rosemarie Merrill, Paula Merrill's sister. Rosemarie Merrill told the judge she was "relieved" that Sanders would spend the rest of his life in prison, but also said she had prayed for him and his family every day since his arrest. She and other called for Sanders to repent and try to reform his life in prison.

    Relatives of Held and Merrill, as well as other members of their religious orders, filled rows of benches in the courtroom Thursday. Some clenched their eyes shut as Malone-Oliver read the charges against Sanders before he pleaded guilty.

    Marie Sanders, the wife of Rodney Sanders, was one of Sanders' few friends in the courtroom.

    Also among those who spoke to the court was Sister Mary Walz, one of three new Catholic sisters who have moved into Held and Merrill's house to minister in Holmes County. Walz, a social worker and a member of the Daughters of Charity, said she never met Held or Merrill, but felt like she knew them from meeting their former patients.

    "They knew the sisters cared for them and took a personal interest in their well-being," Walz said. "I feel certain that their last breath, conscious or not, was a prayer of forgiveness for Rodney."

    ———

    https://pilotonline.com/news/nation-...57003d3d5.html
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  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Sisters' killer sentenced to life without parole in Mississippi

    By Dan Stockman
    Global Sisters Report

    Rodney Earl Sanders, who killed two sisters who were ministering to the poor in rural Mississippi, will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Holmes County Circuit Judge Jannie Lewis gave Sanders two sentences of life without parole, plus 30 more years for burglary and car theft, after accepting a plea agreement June 21, the Associated Press reported. The hearing was held in Lexington, Mississippi, just blocks from the clinic where the sisters, both nurse practitioners, had worked, AP said.

    Sr. Paula Merrill, a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky, and Merrill's housemate, co-worker and friend, Sr. Margaret Held of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, were found stabbed to death in their home in Durant on Aug. 25, 2016. Both were 68.

    "The number of Paula and Margaret's days was cut short by your acts of violence that night, Mr. Sanders. But we are grateful that your own life will not be subjected to that same violence," said a statement read at the sentencing by Sr. Carol Rigali and Sr. Deborah Fumagalli of the School Sisters of St. Francis U.S. Province Leadership Team. "We hope that you will ask the God that our sisters served so faithfully and so bravely to forgive you for taking their lives. Your actions caused so much hurt and sorrow to those who loved them, but also to those who love you."

    Sr. Susan Gatz, president of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, was also grateful prosecutors would not seek the death penalty.

    "We have longed for justice with regard to our two beloved sisters. And so, we support this plea agreement for life in prison without parole," Gatz said in a statement she read to the court. "It is justice that recognizes all life is valuable. It is justice that holds out hope, always, that love can break through the hardest barriers."

    "Mr. Sanders, we will never forget what you did to them and the suffering that has caused so many. But, because we believe in Christ and his gospel, we forgive you," Gatz said in the statement. "We have learned over these couple of years that your life has had much turmoil and pain. We want you to know that we will pray that you can find peace."

    In an email to Global Sisters Report, Gatz wrote, "Indeed, we pray for everyone who has been affected by the senseless murders of Sisters Paula and Margaret — our Congregations, the families and friends of our two Sisters, and Mr. Sanders' family."

    The bodies of the sisters were found by police after co-workers asked law enforcement to check on the women when they failed to arrive for work at the clinic in Lexington, about 10 miles from Durant. Both women worked at the clinic, where they gave flu shots, dispensed insulin and provided other medical care. The clinic provides about 25 percent of all the health care in the county, AP reported.

    Though Held and Merrill lived in the impoverished town of Durant, population about 2,700, for six years, they had been ministering for some 30 years to those made poor, mostly in Mississippi. In May 2017, a stone monument with their photos was placed in a Durant park honoring their service.

    They were posthumously inducted into the Nightingale Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Mississippi Nurses Association and the Mississippi Nurses Foundation. A scholarship at the Mississippi University for Women, where both received nursing degrees, was established in their names. The award will be presented to a graduate nursing student who works in an underserviced or needy area or who is active in charitable or community service work.

    The home Held and Merrill shared in Durant is now shared by three sisters from the Sisters of Charity Federation: Sr. Mary Walz of the Daughters of Charity is a social worker at the Lexington clinic, Sr. Sheila Conley of the Sisters of Charity of Halifax is an educator in a federally funded job training program, and Sr. Madeline Kavanagh of the Daughters of Charity is in prison ministry.

    "Each one of us continues to grapple with the fact that these two women, who based their lives on peace, justice and the love of God died in such a cruel and horrific way," Gatz said in her statement to the court. "These two women who were two of the most gentle persons you could ever know. Paula and Margaret were so loved, and they are so missed."

    The statement by Rigali and Fumagalli said Merrill's and Held's work continues.

    "We are confident that Paula and Margaret, who have received their martyrs' reward in heaven, are praying for you," the statement said. "We pray, with them, that you will walk more closely with God every day, so that the remainder of your days will reflect a true amendment of life, thanks to God's mercy."

    http://globalsistersreport.org/news/...sissippi-54636
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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