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South Bend man pleads no contest in Michigan woman's 1987 slaying

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NILES, Mich. (AP) — An Indiana man has pleaded no contest in the 1987 killing of a woman whose husband found her dead in their southwestern Michigan home.

The Berrien County Prosecutor’s office says 67-seven-year-old Patrick Gilham pleaded no contest Friday to second-degree murder and has agreed to a minimum 23-year prison sentence.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is used as such at sentencing.

Gilham was arrested last month on open murder and other charges in the killing of 30-year-old Roxanne Leigh Wood.

Her husband found her dead, with her throat cut, in their Niles Township home in February 1987.