Life In Prison @ MindSay

Former Fresno State basketball player Terry Pettis was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Tuesday for the murder of a teenage woman in a botched drug robbery, The Fresno Bee reported.

Pettis, 21, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed robbery in the death of Rene Shannon Abbott, a Fresno City College student who was behind the wheel of a car while her boyfriend sold marijuana in the seat next to her.

Pettis shoved a handgun through the open driver's window and demanded the drugs, witnesses said. The gun fired when Abbott, 18, tried to drive away.

The April 2004 killing capped a series of run-ins Pettis had with the law that ended his basketball career at California State University, Fresno.

Pettis, who led Minneapolis Henry to three straight state championships, was one of the top Western Athletic Conference players his freshman year at Fresno.

But his exploits off the court soon started drawing more attention.

In 2003, Pettis was sentenced to three years of probation for vandalism and battery, and he spent a month in a substance abuse program.

He emerged to lead the Bulldogs on a seven-game winning spree. But in February 2004 he was suspended from the team and put behind bars for violating probation by not completing a batterer's treatment program.

Six days after Pettis got out of jail, Abbott drove her boyfriend, Kent Wolf, to the parking lot of an apartment complex near Fresno State.

While Wolf sold an ounce of marijuana, a gunman appeared at the driver's side window demanding the drugs, witnesses testified.

"Go, go, go," Wolf shouted. The car jumped into reverse and the gun fired, Michael Tunnell, the drug buyer, testified.

Tunnell and Wolf pointed to Pettis as the gunman. A police technician identified his finger and palm prints on Abbott's car window. And jurors heard a tape of his then-girlfriend, Melissa Cenci, tell police how a hysterical Pettis came to her house that night, saying he thought he "shot something" during a drug robbery.

Spc. Brandon Bare, 20, of Wilkesboro, N.C., faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Army prosecutors contend the slaying was premeditated. Bare's lawyer has admitted the soldier killed his wife but said it was not planned because he acted in "intense passion" after learning she was having an affair. He suggested Bare should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, not murder.

Nabila Bare, 18, had been stabbed at least 71 times when she was found July 12, 2005, in the couple's kitchen.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Eric Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison Monday for his role in a deadly women's clinic bombing after he angrily denounced abortion and one of his victims called him a "monster."

His diatribe — and the emotional statements of his victims — came as he was sentenced under the plea deal that spared his life. He received two life terms without parole for the 1998 bombing that killed an off-duty police officer. Next month, he is to receive two more life terms for the 1996 Olympic bombing and other attacks in Atlanta.

"The full responsibility for this would have been the death sentence," Emily Lyons, the nurse maimed by his bomb, said Monday in court.

And Felicia Sanderson, whose husband died in the explosion, said, "I want to tell you there is no punishment in my opinion great enough for Eric Rudolph. When Eric Rudolph leaves this earth and has to face final judgment, I'm going to leave the final judgment in God's hand."

Seated at the defense table, Rudolph nodded in agreement. Then, when it was his turn to speak, Rudolph angrily lashed out at abortion and the women's clinic that performs them.

Rudolph: ‘Deadly force’ needed
"What they did was participate in the murder of 50 children a week," he said. "Abortion is murder, and because it is murder I believe deadly force is needed to stop it."

"Children are disposed of at will," he said in a long speech against abortion. "The state is no longer the protector of the innocents."

But Lyons, when she spoke earlier, said Rudolph was nothing but a coward.

"When it was your turn to face death you weren't so brave again," Lyons told the federal courtroom. "You want to see a monster, all you have to do is look in the mirror," she said.

She read her statement in a strong voice and occasionally looked across the aisle at Rudolph.

"It really doesn't matter what you say because I will go back to my home and you will go back to jail. The clinics in town will still be open and abortion will still be legal," Lyons said.

Prosecutor Michael Whisonant said in court that Rudolph was an "evil man" who shopped for bomb components on Christmas Eve and "appointed himself judge, jury and executioner" when he pushed the button detonating the bomb near police officer Robert "Sande" Sanderson.

"Rudolph has no regret for his actions, and he may consider them to be morally justified," said Whisonant.

Rudolph, 38, pleaded guilty in April to setting off the remote-controlled bomb that maimed Lyons and killed Sanderson outside the New Woman All Women clinic on the morning of Jan. 29, 1998.

Sentencing in August for 1996 Olympic bombings
He also faces sentencing Aug. 22 in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics bombing that killed one woman and injured more than 100, as well as 1997 bombings at an abortion clinic and gay bar in Atlanta.

Felicia Sanderson, speaking with Rudolph to her back, told the court of the devastation he caused to her family.

"My son Nick lost the only father that he ever knew. I never forget the look on my son's face when I told him Sande was gone," she said.

She said Rudolph took away a man who "touched many, many lives. ... He was always willing to help anyone out."

The clinic's director, Diane Derzis, told Rudolph, "It gives me great delight to know you are going to spend the rest of your life sitting in an 8-by-12 box."

Any proceeds for Rudolph’s story will go to victims
As the hearing began, U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith ruled that any proceeds Rudolph might receive from books or other projects must go to pay restitution to his victims.

In a statement distributed after his guilty pleas, Rudolph portrayed himself as a devout Christian and said the bombings were motivated by his hatred of abortion and a federal government that lets it continue. He called the plea bargain "purely a tactical choice on my part."

Under the plea agreement, Rudolph also disclosed hidden explosives in the mountains of western North Carolina, where he was captured in May 2003 after more than five years as a fugitive.