Michael Kelly Roberts, 46, sentenced to die 4 years...

Michael Kelly Roberts, 46, sentenced to die 4 years ago for killing a man will instead spend the rest of his life in prison, a King County Superior Court judge decided.Roberts pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in a deal that sends him not to the death chamber but to prison for life without the possibility of release. Roberts and an accomplice, Timothy Cronin, also from Canada, were sentenced in 1997 for killing 57-year-old Elijio Cantu. Roberts and Cronin were found guilty of aggravated murder.Roberts was to be executed for the crime and Cronin to spend the rest of his life in prison. But in December, the state Supreme Court overturned the aggravated-murder sentences, saying the King County Superior Court case was flawed. The high court upheld the 1st-degree-murder convictions. The court had trouble with the fact that both men, in separate trials, had said the other was the killer. The court said that a person should not be sentenced to death unless it could be proved that the individual "personally caused the death or was a major participant in the homicidal acts." The cases were returned to King County. Roberts pleaded rather than risk another death sentence.