NATION : Nursing Home Killer Sentenced

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A former nursing home aide was sentenced to life in prison without parole today for smothering five patients in a pact with her lesbian lover.

Gwendolyn Graham, 26, was convicted Sept. 20 of five counts of murder and one of conspiracy for killing severely incapacitated patients at the Alpine Manor Nursing Home in 1987.

Graham’s former co-worker and lover, Catherine Wood, was sentenced last month to 20 to 40 years in prison for her part in the slayings.

Wood, the prosecution’s key witness, testified that the murders were part of a pact the two hoped would bind their love. She said Graham told her the killings helped her “relieve tension.”