Bucks jury could get church killing case today

Jury deliberations in the case of Mary Jane Fonder, accused of murdering a receptionist in the office of their church, could begin as early as this afternoon in Bucks County Court.

Judge Rea B. Boylan told jurors to be ready to cancel any evening plans because they could begin deciding Fonder's fate late today.

Fonder, 66, is accused of fatally shooting Rhonda Smith, 42, in the office of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, where both were members. Prosecutors say Fonder was jealous of the attention Smith had been getting from other churchgoers and the pastor, with whom Fonder was smitten.

Boylan's announcement suggested that Fonder's defense would be brief, since prosecutors have yet to rest their case. It also may indicate that Fonder will not be called to testify, as her penchant for nonstop rambling has become a recurring theme in the trial.

Yesterday, the jury listened to a recorded, hours-long interview between Fonder and police investigators on Feb. 25. In a jumble of sentence fragments, Fonder was heard telling police that she had tossed away her .38-caliber revolver in 1994 in Lake Nockamixon, that she was "crazy about" the pastor, and that she had no idea who might have killed Smith on Jan. 23 inside the Springfield Township church.

What the jury did not hear in the edited tape was Fonder's full explanation for ditching the gun in the lake.

In 1994, Fonder was under suspicion in the disappearance of her elderly father, with whom she lived, in August 1993. Edward Fonder 3d never has been found.

In the unedited interview, Mary Jane Fonder told police that she had bought the gun for protection. But she said she had considered suicide in 1994 because of the speculation and "bad press" she endured after her father had vanished. References to her father, considered unfairly prejudicial to her case, were removed from the recording before it was played to jurors.

The jury did hear Fonder telling investigators that she was thinking of sitting on her lawn and shooting herself in the heart, before a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses appeared and cheered her up. "They came around at the right time for me, and that's when I got rid of the gun," she said.

Fonder's gun was recovered from Lake Nockamixon two days before her April 1 arrest. An expert has testified that it had been there two years at most and probably no longer than a few weeks.