A former employee of two local law offices pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $35,000 from the firms by falsely filling out closing documents.

Circuit Court Judge John Milling sentenced Carolyn Keys to 20 years in prison, which will be suspended after she serves three years in prison and five years on probation. Milling ordered the sentences to run consecutively, so if Keys does not successfully complete her probation, she must serve the remainder of her prison sentence.

Keys, 60, who lives with her sister in Virginia, pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of trust with fraudulent intent for two separate incidents at law firms in Horry and Georgetown counties, Solicitor Greg Hembree said.

Prosecutors had recommended the sentences to run concurrently, but Milling said he chose the consecutive sentence in case she failed the conditions of her probation, which include repaying $22,500 in restitution to the law firms, and random drug and alcohol testing.

Keys admitted she took $20,492 from the Manley and Hatley Law Firm while she worked there from May 2005 to December 2006 and $15,149 from the McNair Law Firm, where she worked after leaving the Manley and Hatley firm.

Keys' attorney, Mary Ashley Martin, told Milling that Keys suffered from leukemia and was first diagnosed when the incidents began. Martin said Keys also was under stress because her son had been deployed with the Marines to Iraq.

"I am so sorry. I know I can't correct what I've done. I hope you will forgive me," Keys said during the hearing as she turned to representatives of the law firms. "They put trust in me, and I betrayed that trust," Keys said.

Keys served a probation sentence in 2004 after she pleaded guilty to obtaining $1,850 under false pretenses, and she paid restitution to her former landlord in that case, Hembree said.

"She's been given a chance. Another judge gave her a chance and that experiment failed," Hembree said before Milling issued his sentence Wednesday. "This is not some kid down at the Wal-Mart, who does something stupid. This is a legal professional. We have to have faith and trust in this profession or it breaks down. She was single-handedly breaking it down."

Chad Hatley, who employed Keys, said he's spent at least $72,000 repaying clients, hiring auditors and accounting firms to review his records in addition to answering to the S.C. Bar Association about the misconduct in his office.

A sentencing hearing for Sidney Lowe II began Monday and is expected to end Tuesday in Guilford County Superior Court.

Defense lawyer Joe Cheshire said his client was "completely remorseful."

Lowe entered guilty pleas to six counts each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and kidnapping, possession of a weapon on educational property, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana and possession of ecstasy under a plea agreement.

The 23-year-old Lowe also entered a plea to a conspiracy to commit armed robbery charge from a shooting at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The plea means he doesn't admit guilt but says the state has enough evidence to convict him.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday that Steven Hatfill was a public figure and had to prove actual malice to win his libel lawsuit. The court said Hatfill failed to meet that burden.

Five people were killed and 17 sickened in the anthrax attacks. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft publicly identified Hatfill as a "person of interest" in the investigation.

Columnist Nicholas Kristof criticized the FBI's investigation as lackadaisical and initially referred to Hatfill as "Mr. Z." Kristof identified Hatfill by name only after Hatfill held a news conference to denounce rumors.

In a soft voice, she pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy, access device fraud, bank fraud and money laundering and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Robreno has scheduled sentencing for Oct. 17.

Kirsch has been in custody for more than a week since deciding to skip house arrest in favor of jail in anticipation of a prison sentence.

Her attorney, Ronald Greenblatt, has said that Kirsch faces a mandatory sentence of at least two years in prison. Kirsch has captivated an international audience since photos of her - looking well-endowed and flirtatious and sometimes in a bikini - circulated on the Internet after her arrest.

Kirsch and her one-time boyfriend, Edward K. Anderton, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, are accused of stealing identification of friends, co-workers and neighbors to get fake ID used to finance a lavish lifestyle. They are accused of stealing more than $116,000 from their victims. Anderton pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected condemned inmate Christopher Scott Emmett's argument that Virginia's procedure was unconstitutional.

Emmett's lawyers claimed the procedure risks substantial harm because it does not allow for a second dose of anesthesia to make sure an inmate is unconscious before paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are injected.

The appeals court said there is no evidence that the first dose of anesthesia has ever failed to render an inmate unconscious.

The ruling came on the day another Virginia inmate — Kent Jermaine Jackson — was executed by lethal injection for killing his 79-year-old neighbor. The 26-year-old Jackson, sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of Beulah Mae Kaiser, was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.

Emmett is scheduled to be executed July 24 for the 2001 bludgeoning death of a co-worker in Danville.

The appeals court said Virginia's protocol for administering the three-drug concoction is "largely identical" to that of Kentucky, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in April.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday put off deciding on the wireless industry's challenge to the regulations until the Federal Communications Commission gets preliminary clearance for the rules.

After a panel of experts appointed by the FCC pointed out that many cell towers along the Gulf Coast stopped working when they lost power during Hurricane Katrina, the agency proposed in May 2007 that all cell towers have a minimum of eight hours of backup power that would switch on in the event a tower lost its regular energy source.

The loss of power contributed to communication breakdowns that complicated rescue and recovery efforts during the 2005 disaster.

Wireless companies have said the regulations were illegally drafted and would present a huge economic and bureaucratic burden. In particular, they said, the thousands of generators or battery packs required would be expensive and local zoning rules or structural limitations could make installation impossible in some places.

The FCC agreed in October to exempt cell sites that a wireless carrier proved couldn't meet the rules. The FCC would give companies six months to report on the feasibility of installing backup power and another six months either to bring sites into compliance or explain how they would provide backup service through other means, such as portable cellular transmitters.

CTIA-The Wireless Association, Sprint Nextel Corp. and others asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., this year to intervene, saying the exemptions would still leave wireless companies scrambling to inspect and compile reports on thousands of towers.

The appeals court put the rules on hold while it heard each sides' arguments in May.