Police: Accused Killer Called Nun Verbally Abusive
Mykhaylo Kofel told Miami-Dade Police investigators that he got drunk and stabbed nun Michelle Lewis to death because she was verbally abusive to him – a complaint repeated Tuesday by one of the student monk’s former classmates at Holy Cross Academy.
Danelys Pereira, 17, who made friends with the Ukrainian monk-in-training when they were in ninth grade, agreed that Lewis verbally abused Kofel.
”She was mean to Mykhaylo and the other Ukrainian boys. She would humiliate him because he didn’t speak English. She hurt his feelings.”
Kofel, 18, was among a small group of Ukrainians who came to Holy Cross in their early teens to study at the school and monastery. Some who knew them said they were unhappy and lonely in their new home.
Most parents interviewed since the homicide have spoken highly of the school and the nun. Marietta Fernandez, whose daughter is in sixth grade at the Byzantine Catholic school, does not believe Lewis was mean to anyone:
”Not at all. . . . She was a woman of God. She was very religious. During the time she had, she would be cleaning the chapel, preparing lunches. I can’t even think that.”
Lewis, 39, was found dead in a convent bedroom Sunday morning after she was missed at Mass. She was naked, but an autopsy detected no signs of sexual assault. Laboratory tests of body fluids, not yet complete, are needed to confirm that.
The nature of the crime and the many stab wounds suggest it was an act of rage.
”There was an extensive amount of trauma. It took a couple of days to finish the work,” said Dr. Ray Fernandez, an associate medical examiner, of the autopsy. Lewis’ relatives are expected to claim her body and return to her hometown of Akron, Ohio, this week.
Kofel told detectives he was drunk when he killed Lewis. They are not sure that is true, although he evidently had been drinking. On Monday he showed them an empty wine bottle he had tossed into a farmyard across the road from the convent where Lewis lived.
Review Of Evidence
Homicide detectives are still questioning people at the school and reviewing evidence, seeking to verify details of Kofel’s confession before making them public.
”We’re trying to tie up loose ends,” said lead Detective Arthur Nanni, who took the prisoner’s statement.
Kofel could have appeared at a bond hearing in court Tuesday but declined. He could not be released on bail, anyway, because he is charged with first-degree murder. Kofel’s arraignment is scheduled for April 16 before Circuit Judge Manuel Crespo.
Kofel is being kept in a one-man cell on the Miami-Dade County Jail’s ninth floor, in a section reserved for psychiatric prisoners. Jail spokeswoman Janelle Hall said Kofel is on precautionary suicide watch, naked except for a thickly padded royal blue vest reaching nearly to the knees.
Kofel spent four years at Holy Cross, finishing 12th grade last year. In January, he began taking biology, English composition, psychology and philosophy classes at Barry University in Miami Shores. He was enrolled in the nursing school.
While at Holy Cross, Kofel was one of a group of two to six young Ukrainian seminarians who lived in an on-campus dormitory. According to some students and parents, the Ukrainians complained of feeling isolated from other students. The Ukrainians wore different uniforms, and classmates were discouraged from socializing with them.
A former student and the mother of another student said Tuesday that Kofel hated his life there and dreamed of escaping.
Lucy Hernandez, whose son attended Holy Cross until last year, said of Lewis:
”It’s a shock in the sense that it’s a loss of life. . . . But she was a difficult person for most people to get along with. She was very restrained in her character. She was not well known for her outgoing personality.”
Wanted To Run Away
Hernandez said her son reported Kofel telling him several times that he wanted to run away. But he had no money and nowhere to go, and Holy Cross headmaster Abbot Gregory Wendt had his passport.
One summer, when Kofel was looking forward to seeing his parents back home, he told Hernandez’s son that Wendt refused to let him go, Hernandez said.
Neither Wendt nor anyone else at the school, 12425 SW 72nd St., would speak to reporters Tuesday. Two administrators reached at home said they were forbidden to comment.
Wendt, however, told about 100 parents at the school Tuesday during an impromptu meeting that the young men from the Ukraine underwent a lot of scrutiny, said one parent, Frank Cordero.
”They undergo clinical psychological tests. It sounded pretty official. It’s a psychiatric test just to make sure they are balanced individuals,” Cordero said Wendt told them.
Danelys Pereira, Kofel’s friend at Holy Cross, called him quiet and sweet.
”He would tell me he was happy at the school and everybody was nice to him, except for Sister Michelle,” Danelys recalled.