Mykhaylo Kofel

Background

Mykhaylo Kofel was a Byzantine Catholic Church monk-in-training. He had brought to the Holy Cross Academy campus four years ago from Ukraine and had studied at the school for five years. The campus also housed a Byzantine monastic order, where Kofel had lived the past four years.

Sister Michelle Lewis was a 39-year-old Byzantine Catholic nun who lived with another Byzantine Catholic nun in a home on the campus of Holy Cross Academy, where she taught.

Circuit Judge Manuel Crespo granted Assistant Public Defender Edith Georgi’s motion requiring four other Ukrainian youths studying at Holy Cross to get court permission first if they wanted to leave the country, and the testimony by the four students was described as “material to defendant's preparation of the case.”

The offence

Mykhaylo Kofel stabbed and beat Sister Michelle Lewis to death. Prosecutors later described the body as having been found stabbed more than 90 times in her residence at Holy Cross Academy in 2001.

Kofel’s plea included a guilty plea to second-degree murder. Under the deal, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed burglary.

Kofel told authorities he was sexually abused while training, and he said the abuse occurred while he was training with a Byzantine Catholic monastic order. Kofel said he was sexually molested over four years by Abbot Father Gregory F.G. Wendt and the Rev. Damian J.A. Gibault, and he said Sister Michelle verbally abused him. The two priests denied Kofel’s allegations.

Prosecutor Gail Levine said she believed Kofel’s account of being abused, which led to the plea agreement.

Investigation

Miami-Dade County homicide detectives said Kofel, who was charged with murdering a nun at Holy Cross Academy, may have been writing a thesis on the death penalty while taking classes at Barry University.

Two days after Miami-Dade police arrested Kofel, police used a search warrant based on his confession to remove items from a house that Holy Cross owned near the university. In the custody form listing what was taken into custody, detectives listed three steak knives, a bloody sheet and the central processing unit of a personal computer.

In a March 28 affidavit, lead investigator Miami-Dade County homicide detective Arthur Nanni said Kofel confessed to the killing and “told detectives about frustrations and concerns that he had living at Holy Cross Academy.” The affidavit said the three steak knives matched one found at the murder scene on the grounds at Holy Cross.

A separate report described police investigating another allegation of sexual battery at the private church school in the Kendall neighborhood southwest of Miami. Detective Ed Munn said, “We are investigating an allegation of lewd (and) lascivious fondling of a child between Jan. 1, 1997, and Jan. 1, 1998.” When asked if that investigation was at Holy Cross Academy, Munn said: “We can't give out address or the names involved because it's a sex crime.” A Holy Cross spokesman denied the allegations, and Joseph Blonsky said: “It is absolutely untrue,” and “We have already suffered two incredible blows.”

Holy Cross Academy closed after the case.

Arrest

Police arrested Mykhaylo Kofel on March 26, following the stabbing death the day before of Sister Michelle Lewis. Kofel was held without bond at Miami-Dade County Jail.

At the time of his arrest, police said he confessed to the slaying.

Trial

A two-count grand jury indictment charged Kofel with first-degree murder and armed burglary with assault or battery. At arraignment, Kofel pleaded innocent to those charges.

At arraignment, Kofel turned down an offer by school officials to hire an attorney for him, and instead was appointed Assistant Public Defender Edith Georgi.

Assistant State Attorney Gail Levine announced she would subpoena witnesses, and she said church intransigence had complicated the case. The developments followed a flurry of lawyer hirings by the school’s insurance carrier for each potential witness, including top school officials, another nun and a school maintenance man. That brought the number of private lawyers involved in the case to six, beyond prosecution and defense attorneys.

At sentencing, Circuit Judge Manny Crespo denied Lewis-Mercury’s request to have Kofel locked up with photographs of the crime scene every March 25, the murder’s anniversary, saying he had no authority to make prison officials do that. Crespo described the case as “one of the most tragic he has seen” and said that although Kofel seemed to be more mature now than when he killed Lewis, it remained an “intolerable act.” Crespo added that the outcome was “a very lenient sentence, a very lenient resolution.”

Kofel pleaded guilty later in 2005.

Sentencing

On February 10, 2005, Mykhaylo Kofel pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed burglary, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Before sentencing, Kofel told the court: “I am really sorry. I want to take full responsibility for my actions,” and “If I could, I would give my life for hers. Murder is wrong no matter what.”

Lewis’ mother, Bev Lewis-Mercury, read a letter she wrote to Kofel while in court. She said: “I want you to know where she is now. She is in heaven,” and “Your murder of her was so vile and brutal I was not even allowed to see her to say goodbye.”

Assistant Public Defender Edith Georgi said Kofel had “accepted full responsibility for what he did” and that others should do the same. Georgi said: “People who have wronged him should take responsibility for what they have done,” and she said “accepted full responsibility for what he did.”

Prosecutor Gail Levine said she believed Kofel’s statements about being abused, and she said she believed that led to the plea bargain. She also said the investigation into the abuse claims continued.

Richard Hersch, Gibault’s lawyer, said: “We have, from the very first day, denied the allegations of Kofel,” and Hersch said many agencies, including the FBI, had closed their investigations into the abuse because there was no evidence.

Appeals

No appeal information was included in the provided material.

Outcome

Kofel admitted killing Michelle Lewis. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of Sister Michelle Lewis and received a 30-year prison sentence.

The investigations into the abuse claims were described as continuing after the plea, and later described as having been closed by many agencies including the FBI due to no evidence.

Aftermath

The church bought a three-bedroom house near the university in December, and County property records were referenced in relation to where Kofel and other monastic students lived.

Lewis-Mercury said her daughter became a nun in 1990, giving up a well-paid job as an insurance actuary. She also said: “I want you to know where she is now. She is in heaven,” after crying as she read the letter.

Kofel’s attorney, Edith Georgi, declined to comment on the search or the so-called death penalty thesis.