DALLAS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
By Scott Goldstein / Reporter
sgoldstein@dallasnews.com
3:25 pm on May 17, 2012
John Fiala also faces sex assault charges in Edwards County.
A former Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at gunpoint was convicted this afternoon of trying to hire a hit man to kill the boy.
John Fiala, who faces up to life in prison, showed no outward emotion as the verdict was read. The jury of nine women and three men that convicted him after a few hours of deliberating will decide his punishment.
Testimony in the punishment phase of the trial is underway.
Fiala testified this morning that he told a purported hit man to kill his accuser because he thought his own life was in danger.
He said his friend and neighbor Scottie Fisher told him the hit man was his brother. The brother would likely turn on Fiala if he wasn’t convinced the hit was on, Fiala said Fisher told him.
“I knew that if I didn’t do this, I’d be the one on the list, marked to be killed, according to what Scottie said,” Fiala said.
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