NORWALK, Calif. (AP) - A former Long Beach schools union leader has been sentenced to life in prison for teaming with his now-dead father in the murder-for-hire killing of his stepmother 19 years ago.

The November 1989 killing of Rosemary Schessler went unsolved
until last year when the woman's stepson Joseph Schessler told a
friend about the crime.

The 46-year-old former Long Beach Unified School District representative and one-time vice president of the California School
Employees Association was sentenced Thursday to life in prison
without possibility of parole.

After his father died in 2003, Schessler allegedly confessed to his wife and later to longtime friend Linda LaPoint, who went to police and agreed to wear a wire.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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