Abductor denied cut in sentence

A New Jersey man's life sentence in prison stands, a federal appeals court panel has ruled, overturning a judge's decision in the case of a Metairie woman who was kidnapped nine years ago at Lakeside Shopping Center and released 19 hours later in Pennsylvania.

Paul Will, 36, was convicted of aggravated kidnapping in 2001 and received the mandatory life sentence for abducting Nicole Madere on July 24, 2000, as she arrived at the mall for work. He forced the 18-year-old college student to drive him to Philadelphia, where he set her free on a street.

Will, who claimed to be suicidal and despondent over the death of an uncle, never denied the crime. But he said at most he committed a second-degree kidnapping, which carries a sentence of five to 40 years in prison -- an argument state and federal appeals courts have rejected.

He also has argued his trial attorney was "ineffective," because he claims the lawyer never informed him of a plea offer from the prosecutors before a Jefferson Parish jury convicted him in July 2001. Prosecutors and his trial attorney deny there was an offer.

Louisiana courts rejected the argument. But U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan ruled two years ago there was a plea offer. Prosecutors appealed, and in an Oct. 9 ruling released last week, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled there was no plea offer.

Will's appellate attorney, Davidson Ehle, will ask the appeals court judges in New Orleans to reconsider.

"I was extremely disappointed in the decision," Ehle said Tuesday. "We disagree with the 5th Circuit that a plea offer was not made."

Will says he learned of the plea offer in a Times-Picayune story about his conviction, in which Madere's family was quoted as saying they did not understand why Will rejected a plea offer....