Woman Gets Life in Killing of Man Who Was Buried Alive
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KANKAKEE, Ill. — A woman convicted in the kidnaping-murder of businessman Stephen Small, who suffocated when buried alive, has been sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
“I just want to say I am not guilty of those charges, never was,” Nancy Rish told Judge John Michela on Monday. “I am very sorry for what happened, for what I was associated with.”
Prosecutors said Rish, 26, joined with her boyfriend, Daniel Edwards, in the plot. They said Rish lured Small from his home with a telephone call so he could be abducted by Edwards, who has been sentenced to death.
Small, a member of a prominent media family and great-grandson of a former Illinois governor, was kidnaped on Sept. 2, 1987. His body was unearthed two days later.
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