Priest gunned down in apparent robbery

MISSISSIPPI (AP):

A Catholic priest was shot to death by a handyman during a weekend retreat on the Mississippi coast, police said, and the suspect was arrested yesterday in Florida.

Jeremy Wayne Manieri was taken into custody without incident about 6 a.m. at a hotel in Polk County, Florida, after police tracked the priest's stolen car using its anti-theft device, Mississippi Department of Public Safety spokesman Jon Kalahar said. Manieri will be charged with murder once he's brought back to Waveland, Mississippi.

The Reverend Edward E. Everitt, 70, was found by a caretaker on Monday.

"When she entered she found the man on the couch in the front room and he was bleeding from the mouth so she backed out and called the police," Waveland Police Chief James Varnell said.

Police said robbery was the motive. Authorities did not know whether Manieri has an attorney. He's being held on auto theft warrant from Escambia County, Florida.

Everitt was a pastor at Holy Ghost Church in Hammond, La., and Our Lady of Pompeii Church in nearby Tickfaw. The church is a member of the Dominican Order and also operates a school in the community about 50 miles northwest of New Orleans.