Suspect in NIU student slaying enters plea

     SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) – A man has entered an Alford plea in the 2010 slaying of a Northern Illinois University student whose burned body was found in a park days after she disappeared.

     William Curl entered the plea today in a DeKalb County courtroom and will serve all of a 37-year prison sentence under the terms of his plea deal.

     The 36-year-old Curl insists that he didn’t kill 18-year-old Antinette “Toni” Keller. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt but is an acknowledgement that prosecutors likely could have secured a conviction at trial.

     Curl’s public defender, Tom McCulloch, says Curl could have been sentenced to life in prison had he been convicted at trial.