Ex-texas Priest Gets 60 Years in Murder Scheme

San Antonio Express-News
May 18, 2012

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Ex-Texas-priest-gets-60-years-in-murder-scheme-3568844.php

A Dallas jury has sentenced a former Roman Catholic priest to 60 years in prison for plotting the death of a man who accused him of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence for 53-year-old John M. Fiala during Friday's closing arguments.

Defense attorney Rex Gunter said anything more than 15 years would be a "travesty."

The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/Kucuq3) reports the ex-priest will be eligible for parole after 15 years.

Fiala was convicted Thursday for solicitation of capital murder.

His accuser testified Fiala sexually assaulted him — at least once by gunpoint — when he was a boy in West Texas, and threatened to hurt his family if he told anybody.

The hit man Fiala hired for $5,000 was actually an undercover police officer.