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Former Pa. Pastor Serving Life For Killing Second Wife Gets More Time For Murder Of First Wife

LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania pastor already serving life without parole for bludgeoning his second wife to death in 2008 has been sentenced to 20 to 40 years in the 1999 death of his first wife.

Arthur "A.B." Schirmer (SHUR'-mur) was sentenced in Lebanon County on Wednesday afternoon. He pleaded no-contest to charges that he killed Jewel Schirmer, his wife of 31 years.

The former Methodist clergyman had claimed he was out for a run when he returned home to find her body in a pool of blood at the bottom of the basement steps.

Authorities reopened the investigation into Jewel Schirmer's death after her husband was charged in Monroe County with using a crowbar to kill his second wife, Betty, in 2008. Schirmer was convicted of first-degree murder in that case.

(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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