Waterloo Kidnapping Sentence Upheld

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld a mandatory life sentence for a man who was 19 when he kidnapped an 8-year-old Waterloo girl in the 1980s.

The ruling Wednesday means 50-year-old William J. Nims Jr. will continue to serve a sentence that includes no possibility of parole.

Nims was 19 when he grabbed the girl as she walked home from school in Waterloo in 1982 and sexually abused her. He was convicted of first-degree kidnapping.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/1c3daQI ) Nims recently appealed his conviction, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that determined life sentences without parole for minors who commit non-homicide crimes was cruel and unusual punishment.

A district court dismissed Nims' appeal, saying there was no precedent to extend the ruling to adult teenagers.