GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — One of the women convicted decades ago of the Alpine Manor nursing home murders said Tuesday she would stay in prison until an appeal over her parole is settled.
"I can just stay right here until the appeal is done," Catherine Wood told the judge, appearing in court via video feed. "That doesn't need to be made a decision. I have no problem with that."
"Oh, OK," Kent County Circuit Court Judge J. Joseph Rossi said, and ruled she would stay incarcerated.
Before that, family members of Wood's victims who asked for the appeal were emotional as they told the court she is a cold-blooded serial killer and they're sure she'll kill again.
"The world's a safer place with her behind bars, because she's going to do something again," Stephani Scruggs, victim Mae Mason's granddaughter, testified. "Every year she's behind bars, even if it's only for a couple more years, is one more year that nobody has to worry about terror in the eyes of a helpless old person."
She said she has had nightmares of her grandmother being suffocated.
John Engman, the attorney leading the fight to keep her locked up, had more at stake than just winning a case: Mason, one of the victims, was his mother-in-law.
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