KALAMAZOO (AP) - A second life prison sentence has been given to a confessed serial killer, this time for slaying a Western Michigan University student more than three decades ago.

Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge Gary C. Giguere Jr. sentenced Coral Eugene Watts, 53, on yesterday for the 1974 stabbing death of 19-year-old Gloria Steele. Watts made some brief comments about abortion during his sentencing hearing, while the victim's mother and daughter spoke about losing Steele, the court said.

In July, a jury convicted Watts of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory prison sentence in Michigan of life with no possibility of parole. He was convicted of the same charge in December 2004 for the 1979 killing of Helen Dutcher, 36, in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale.

Watts, a native of Inkster, which also is near Detroit, has admitted to killing more than a dozen women but denied having anything to do with Steele's death. The college student was stabbed more than 30 times in the apartment that she shared with her daughter, who was then 3 years old.

Watts received immunity for 12 other killings to which he had he confessed - 11 in Texas and one in Michigan that did not involved Steele or Dutcher - as part of a 1982 deal with Texas prosecutors.

He was given a 60-year sentence for burglary with intent to murder, but mandatory release laws and an appeals court ruling reduced his sentence by more than 35 years.

Michigan authorities revived the Dutcher and Steele cases in an effort to keep Watts behind bars because he was to have been released from a Huntsville, Texas, prison in May 2006.

The Michigan attorney general's office has said Watts is a suspect in 26 other slayings and may have killed more than 80 women.