Bishop convicted in fatal hit-and-run

PHOENIX -- Bishop Thomas O'Brien was convicted of hit-and-run Tuesday for leaving the scene after killing a jaywalking pedestrian with his car -- a crash that ended his career as head of the Roman Catholic diocese.\nO'Brien is believed to be the first Roman Catholic bishop in U.S. history to be convicted of a felony.\nThe 68-year-old bishop could be sentenced to anywhere from probation to almost four years in prison.\nJurors deliberated about four-and-a-half hours Friday and an additional two hours Tuesday before reaching their verdict.\nO'Brien, who appeared in court each day wearing a black shirt, Roman collar and a cross around his neck, showed no emotion after the verdict was read, while some members of the victim's family cried.\nO'Brien led the Phoenix diocese's nearly 480,000 Catholics for 21 years, but stepped down in June after he was charged in the crash. O'Brien's successor scheduled an afternoon news conference to discuss the verdict.\nThe resignation came after two weeks of turmoil following an announcement by prosecutors that they had reached an immunity deal with O'Brien that would spare him indictment on obstruction charges for protecting priests accused of child molestation.\nThe chief facts surrounding the accident that killed pedestrian Jim Reed, 43, were not in dispute.\nReed was drunk and jaywalking the night of June 14 when O'Brien hit him on his way home from celebrating mass, leaving a giant spider-web crack in the windshield and Reed lying in the street. O'Brien then drove the two miles back to his house and parked the Buick in his garage.\nThe bishop, who testified for most of two days in the trial, said he initially thought he hit a dog or was struck by a rock. He said he heard a loud crash but never saw anyone in the road, and the defense contended that dim lighting, headlight glare and the victim's dark clothes made him hard to see.\nHad he seen the pedestrian, O'Brien testified, "I would have stopped because that's the humane thing to do. I couldn't imagine not stopping."\nBut prosecutors argued O'Brien knew -- or should have known -- he hit a person. They pointed to the fact that O'Brien did not call police, even after an official in the diocese told him the car may have been involved in a deadly accident.