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CRIME

Minnesota man convicted of going online and assisting suicide gets jail time, says he's sorry

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    FILD - In this Feb. 17, 2011 file photo William Melchert-Dinkel, center, leaves court with his attorney Terry Watkins, right, and wife, Joyce Melchert-Dinkel in Faribault, Minn. Melchert-Dinkel, a former Minnesota nurse who admitted going online and encouraging an English man and a Canadian woman to kill themselves, was ordered Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014 to serve 178 days in jail. He was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, but he won't have to serve the prison term if he complies with conditions of probation that include the jail time. (AP Photo/Robb Long, File) (The Associated Press)

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    FILE - In this combination of file photos provided by their family is Mark Drybrough, left, from Coventry, England and Nadia Kajouji, from Brampton, Ontario. William Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse who admitted going online and encouraging Kajouji and Drybrough to kill themselves, was ordered Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014 to serve 178 days in jail. He was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, but he won't have to serve the prison term if he complies with conditions of probation that include the jail time. (AP Photo/File) (The Associated Press)

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    Defense attorney Terry Watkins speaks with the media outside the Rice County Courthouse, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014, in Faribault, Minn., where a judge sentenced his client, William Melchert-Dinkel, to 178 days in jail. Melchert-Dinkel, a former nurse who admitted going online and encouraging an English man and a Canadian woman to kill themselves, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, but he won't have to serve the prison term if he complies with conditions of probation that include the jail time. (AP Photo/Jim Mone) (The Associated Press)

FARIBAULT, Minn. – A former nurse in Minnesota who admitted going online and encouraging two people to kill themselves is headed to jail.

William Melchert-Dinkel (MEL'-kurt DINK'-uhl) was ordered Wednesday to serve 178 days in jail. He was sentenced to nearly five years in prison, but he won't have to serve the prison term if he complies with conditions of probation that include the jail time.

Melchert-Dinkel must report to jail Oct. 24.

The 52-year-old was convicted in September of one count of assisting a suicide and one count of attempting to assist a suicide in the deaths of an English man and a Canadian woman. The convictions came after the Minnesota Supreme Court narrowed the state's assisted-suicide law and reversed earlier convictions.

Melchert-Dinkel told the judge he was sorry for his actions.