Eliezer Marquez Navedo pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and two sexual assault charges in the Feb 4 slaying of Sara Kuszak.
Marquez faces up to life in prison at a June 1 sentencing hearing. He will not face the death penalty because capital punishment can only be imposed on the US island for federal crimes.
Mr Jimenez said Marquez told him he wished to plead guilty just hours before Tuesday’s hearing was to begin. ‘It was a little bit surprising,’ the lawyer said, adding that his client rarely spoke to him in recent months.
Ms Kuszak was about five months pregnant when she was abducted while jogging along a remote road in eastern Puerto Rico.
She had been living in Savannah, Georgia, and was visiting the US Caribbean island with her fiance and friends. The couple had planned to marry in the Caribbean in March.
From the trunk of her kidnapper’s car, Ms Kuszak made a desperate phone call to her fiance and told him she was going to die, her mother said. She was found dead with her throat slashed about an hour later.
Police say Marquez acknowledged killing Kuszak after they arrested him with bloodstains on his shirt and pants.
Kuszak’s killing was similar to murders that Marquez’s mother, Ines Navedo, was convicted of committing in 1992. She served seven years for slashing the throats of two young siblings aged 2 and 3 before being paroled.
Police have since reopened that case to probe whether Marquez may have been responsible. They plan to re-interview him and are analysing the victims’ wounds for any similarities, but Lieutenant Nelson Torres said the investigation has stalled because no witnesses have materialised.– AP
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