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Nebraska Man Gets Life for Killing Divorce Lawyer

Michael Petersen
Michael Petersen

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A 58-year-old Nebraska man who’s already serving a life sentence for shooting his ex-wife to death has been given another life sentence for killing the attorney who represented him in his divorce.

Michael Petersen, of rural Glenvil, was sentenced on Tuesday in Hall County District Court. He’d pleaded no contest to first-degree murder as part of a deal with prosecutors. In return for Petersen’s plea in the Nov. 13 shooting death of 52-year-old attorney Todd Elsbernd, prosecutors dropped a weapons charge and agreed not to seek the death penalty.

Petersen was sentenced in May for killing 58-year-old Nancy Petersen outside her home in rural Buffalo County.

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