Man gets life in prison for Ala. quadruple slaying

BESSEMER, Ala. – A judge has sentenced a man to life in prison without parole for his conviction in the stabbing deaths of a former girlfriend and three others.

Judge Mac Parsons abided by a unanimous jury recommendation Wednesday in sentencing 26-year-old Scott Lamar Abbott, who was convicted of capital murder in October.

Wearing handcuffs and ankle shackles, Abbott apologized before a large basement courtroom filled with friends and relatives of the victims. "It was truly an act of rage," he told the court.

Prosecutors say Abbott killed his former girlfriend, Jeri Lynn Cole, and three men at a suburban Birmingham house in March 2009 after Cole broke up with Abbott.

Some of the victims' relatives had urged the judge to sentence Abbott to death by lethal injection.