Man accused of killing U.S. nun in Brazil claims self-defense(Bible gun) [View All]

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1134147841218330.xml&storylist=cleveland

12/9/2005, 11:57 a.m. ET
By MICHAEL ASTOR
The Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — The man accused of killing nun and rain forest defender Dorothy Stang told a jury Friday he acted in self-defense after mistaking her Bible for a gun.

Rayfran das Neves Sales is accused of firing six shots from a .38 revolver that killed the 73-year-old nun, born in Dayton, Ohio, on Feb. 12 on a muddy road deep in the heart of the Amazon rain forest.

Sales testified the two argued over who owned the land he was working, and that Stang threatened to "finish him off" with the help of some 150 people living on a sustainable development reserve she was trying to establish.

"She said, 'The weapon I have is this,' and reached into her bag," Sales said. "I didn't know what she was going to pull out of her bag so I shot her."...



Family of slain U.S. nun hopes for justice on eve of trial

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/cleveland/index.ssf?/base/news-21/113409384994670.xml&storylist=cleveland

12/8/2005, 8:58 p.m. ET
By MICHAEL ASTOR
The Associated Press

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — The family of slain Ohio-born nun and rain forest defender expressed hope Thursday that justice would be done on the eve of her alleged killers' trial.

The two men scheduled for trial this week are accused of being the hired gunmen that killed 73-year-old Dorothy Stang in a remote corner of the Amazon rain forest in February in a dispute over land. Their conviction would clear the way for a trial of the two ranchers accused of hiring them.

"We have great hope. The very fact that there is a trial, that people are standing up is a good sign," said David Stang, 63, who flew to this Amazon port city from the United States with his sister Marguerite, 72, to attend Friday's trial.

Dorothy Stang, a native of Dayton, spent the last 30 years of her life defending poor settlers in the Amazon rain forest. She was shot near the remote jungle town of Anapu in a dispute over a patch of forest that a local rancher wanted to cut down...