4 men get life terms in 1979 Mich. death

Four men were sentenced Monday to spend the rest of their lives in prison for kidnapping, raping and murdering a young hotel clerk in 1979.

A jury convicted the four, all now in their 50s or 60s, last month in the death of Janet Chandler, a 22-year-old student at Hope College who was abducted from her job at the Blue Mill Inn, taken to a nearby home, gang-raped and strangled.

A snowplow driver discovered her body the next day about 35 miles south of Holland, home to both the hotel and college.

Convicted of two counts of felony murder each were James Cleophas "Bubba" Nelson, 60, of Rand, W.Va.; Arthur Carlton Paiva, 55, of Muskegon; Freddie Bas Parker, 50, of Powellton, W.Va.; and Anthony Eugene Robert Williams, 56, of Boscobel, Wis. Paiva was also convicted of first-degree murder and the others of second-degree murder.

The convictions guaranteed prison sentences of life without possibility of parole.

Interest in the crime was revived after a Hope class produced a documentary film about it that aired on public television in 2004.

Two other people earlier pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder and are serving prison terms. They are Laurie Ann Swank, 49, who also worked at the hotel and was the victim's supervisor and roommate; and Robert Michael Lynch, 67.

The male defendants were security guards patrolling a labor strike in Holland. All but Paiva were staying at the Blue Mill Inn, where some developed intimate relationships with Chandler and Swank, according to testimony.

Chandler was killed at the house where Paiva had been staying.