NATION : No Prison for Slaying Suspect

TITUSVILLE, Fla. — A man considered a suspect in the slayings of five Gainesville college students should be put in a mental facility, not a prison, for beating his grandmother, a judge said today.

Judge Theo Yawn told lawyers for both sides that he wants to consider sentencing alternatives for Edward Lewis Humphrey, 19, between the extremes of prison or freedom. He had been expected to sentence Humphrey today.

Humphrey was convicted last month of the Aug. 30 beating of his 79-year-old grandmother in Indialantic.

Humphrey, a sometime University of Florida student, has been labeled as one of several suspects in the murders of four college woman and one man, which took place in three separate instances near the university campus in Gainesville during the last week of August. But he has not been charged in those cases.