The Nation - News from Sept. 21, 1989

A former nursing home aide was found guilty on charges that she smothered five incapacitated patients in a pact with her lesbian lover. A jury in Grand Rapids, Mich., deliberated five hours before finding Gwendolyn Graham guilty on five counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the 1987 deaths of patients at Alpine Manor Nursing Home. Graham, 26, faces mandatory life imprisonment without parole. The case rested largely on testimony by Catherine Wood, who said the two had formed a pact to suffocate patients so they would be bound to each other. Wood, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, faces up to life in prison when she is sentenced.