DALLAS (TX)
Digital Journal
By Arthur Weinreb
May 20, 2012
Dallas – The former Roman Catholic priest was sentenced Friday afternoon in a Dallas courtroom after a jury found he had attempted to arrange the murder of a boy who had accused the ex priest of sexual assaulting him on numerous occasions.
Under Texas law, it is the jury, not the judge, who decides the sentence. As reported by Fox News, the jury deliberated for four and one-half hours before deciding that John Fiala, 53, should be sentenced to 60 years in prison. The jury had found the ex priest guilty of the murder-for-hire plot the day before.
Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence but were reported to be satisfied with the sentence the jury came back with. Fiala’s attorney had previously told the jury that anything more than 15 years would be a “travesty.”
The prosecutor, Brendan Birmingham, had also asked the jurors to impose a fine in the amount of $5,016. The sole purpose of the fine was that it would be symbolic. Fiala had offered to pay $5,000 to have the boy killed, who was “16” at the time he first began sexually assaulting him.
Fiala will be eligible for parole after serving 15 years.
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