A federal judge in Kansas City has followed the recommendation of the jury in the Keith Nelson murder trial and has sentenced the 27-year-old Kansas City man to death for the October, 1999 kidnap and murder of 10-year-old Pamela Butler. Nelson had previously admitted kidnapping the youngster while she rollerbladed on a street in front of her house in Kansas City, Kansas. He then took her across the state line to Grain Valley, Missouri, where he strangled her to death with a piece of wire. The girl’sbody was found beneath a brush pile in a wooded area adjacent to a church. Nelson was arrested on a river levee in Kansas City, Kansas.