The State - News from April 1, 1986

Two Fresno men charged with fatally beating a priest during a church robbery were convicted of first-degree murder. A jury in Riverside deliberated over portions of three days in the case against Johnny Lee Smith, 22, and Ronald Windfield, 20, who were charged with the fatal beating of Father Bernard Tobin during a robbery at St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Fresno on Feb. 10, 1985. Tobin died a month later, and an autopsy indicated that his death was caused by a heart attack provoked by a skull fracture that had not been diagnosed after the beating. The jury also convicted Windfield and Smith of robbing the church, robbing a couple earlier and imprisoning the woman. They will be sentenced May 2 in Riverside Superior Court, where the case was moved because of pretrial publicity in Fresno.