Man admits killing nun by bludgeoning

Reehahlio Carroll hung his head so low it nearly touched his chest, and he occasionally sniffled as he admitted Friday that he bludgeoned to death a Roman Catholic nun after unexpectedly encountering her during a burglary of her trailer in the town of Navajo.

She interrupted him in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 2009, as he was rifling through drawers and cabinets, looking for cash or for something to sell so he could buy alcohol or drugs, he said in the guilty plea to second-degree murder. Sister Marguerite Bartz woke up and surprised him when she hit him with a shoe.

Carroll struck five or six blows with a flashlight he had discovered in his frantic search, and the nun crumpled to the floor.

The plea agreement binds the sentencing judge, William P. “Chip” Johnson, to a 40-year sentence and resolves the case after a contentious four years.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, the soonest the 21-year-old would be able to seek release would be after 34 years. Although the sentence is set – Johnson formally accepted the plea and ordered an expedited pre-sentence report – a formal sentencing will be set, which the nun’s family, friends and fellow nuns in the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament order will be able to attend.

Bartz was one of four nuns and a priest at St. Bernard Mission on the Navajo Reservation.

“This was an important case, with a victim who did nothing to bring harm her way,” said Terry Wade, FBI assistant special agent in charge following the sentence.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said the tragedy of the nun’s death is that she had “dedicated her life to bring peace and harmony to the Navajo Nation, but fell victim under violent circumstances.”

Case agent Alvernon Tsosie of the Navajo Division of Public Safety and Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Spiers sat quietly at counsel table while the judge walked painstakingly, sentence by sentence, through the written document setting out “the factual basis” for the plea – that is, what prosecutors could prove if the case had gone to trial.

Carroll, wearing a blue Santa Fe County Detention Center jumpsuit, belly chains and shackles on his feet and hands, stood between Navajo interpreter Esther Yazzie and his attorney, Robert Gorence.

After each sentence, Carroll said, “Yes,” agreeing that it reflected what had happened.

Carroll admitted that he stopped beating the sister only when she stopped moving. A little while later, when she revived enough to scream and moan, he grabbed a shirt and, standing over her, knotted it tightly around her throat.

Medical investigators determined that she died from blunt force trauma and ligature strangulation.

Carroll took the keys to a Honda CRV and took off for Arizona, where he was arrested four days later by Navajo authorities. Wade said Carroll had admitted drinking, but by the time he was apprehended, it was too late for toxicology reports.

Carroll has been held in segregation for his entire pre-trial incarceration, prompting Gorence at one point to ask for him to be moved to general population because isolation and stress were hampering his ability to aid his attorney.

An initial psychological evaluation at a restrictive federal lockup in Massachusetts found he had a functional IQ of 46 and possible organic brain damage, but a subsequent evaluation determined there was malingering, or deliberately trying to appear impaired. Carroll reportedly began using drugs and alcohol at age 9 and attempted suicide in tribal jail soon after his arrest in 2009.
— This article appeared on page C01 of the Albuquerque Journal