Pastor testifies at church-death trial

The Rev. Gregory Shreaves had a romantic stalker in his congregation, a member of the flock turned she-wolf.

Mary Jane Fonder left him endless phone messages until he put a block on her calls.

She dropped unwanted bags of food by the back door of the parsonage at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. She once sneaked inside while Shreaves was away and put food into his fridge.

More disturbing, the pastor recalled, was an encounter with Fonder two years ago in the office of his rural church near Quakertown. "She said something to the effect of 'You can't deny what's going on between us,' " Shreaves testified yesterday in Bucks County Court.

Fonder, 66, is on trial for first-degree murder, accused of shooting to death a fellow female churchgoer on Jan. 23. Rhonda Smith, 42, was shot twice in the head while working as a temporary receptionist in the church office.

Fonder's motive, prosecutors say, was jealousy. She viewed Smith as a rival for the attention and affection of the church and its pastor, who she told police was "a real man, a hell of a man."

Three days before her death, Smith stood in church during Sunday worship and thanked members for helping her financially and spiritually as she struggled with bipolar disorder.

Shreaves, 56, who is single, said he counseled Smith about her struggles, but had no other relationship with her. "I saw her as a member of the congregation," he said.

Fonder, he said, was quite another matter.

An amateur painter who had provided artwork to the church, Fonder went to Shreaves' office in 2006 to discuss decorating the Trinity narthex, he said. Instead, she launched into a long narrative about her life and came on to him, Shreaves said.

"I felt a line had been crossed," Shreaves said. He became guarded around Fonder. He told his bishop about the remarks. He threw out the food she kept leaving at his door. He weathered a barrage of rambling phone calls and voice mails that continued after Smith's slaying.

"I could come over to sit and talk with you, but I can't, I know, it's up to you if you wanted to talk to me . . . ," one voice mail from Fonder began. "I would be all too happy to come over . . . so anyway, I'm busy at home watching a squirrel eating outside and enjoying this beautiful sunny day, so anyway, sir, you have a good evening all righty, hallelujah, amen, and praise the Lord. . . . Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition . . ."

That, Shreaves said, "is just a sample of the types of calls I've received."

Fonder maintains that she is innocent, that she was at a hair appointment when Smith was shot. Her attorneys have accused Shreaves of siccing police on Fonder because of her annoyingly weird - but harmless - behavior.

Shreaves denied that yesterday. He said he told state police about Fonder only when asked about her in February.

"It didn't take me very long to figure out where the investigation was headed," he said.

Fonder had complained to others of feeling depressed and excluded at church.

Mary Brunner, a church member, said Fonder had stopped at her house the day before the slaying, complaining that people at church were "whispering behind her back" and leaving her out of activities.

"She said, 'There are vibrations in the air that are making my mouth sour,' " Brunner said.

After her April 1 arrest, Fonder sat at the state police station in Dublin, Trooper Gregg Dietz testified, and read her pastor's words about her in a court document.

Her warm feelings for the minister had turned.

" 'Make me think he likes me . . .,' " Dietz recalled Fonder grumbling. " 'That phony, fake . . .' "