Joran van der Sloot is expected to plead guilty to the May 2010 murder of Peruvian woman Stephany Flores, but will argue temporary insanity. That’s according to Van Der Sloot’s lawyer, Maximo Altez, who is representing the 23-year-old. Van der Sloot has been held at Lima, Peru’s, Castro Castro prison since June 2010 pending trial, and, says Altez, he’ll argue that “violent emotion” caused him to kill her. Last year, Van Der Sloot admitted details of the murder to the Peruvian newspaper La Republica: “I went to her and I hit her. She was scared, we argued and she tried to escape,” he said. “I grabbed her by the neck and I hit her.” Why? Flores looked at his laptop and “intruded into my personal life.”
If accepted, the plea would mean he’d be sentenced to three to five years and could be out in as few as twenty months. Prosecutors would prefer to try him on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a 15-to-35-year sentence. Van der Sloot also remains the chief suspect in the disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway, though he has yet to be charged.
Joran van der Sloot expected to plead guilty in murder of Peruvian woman, will use insanity defense [NYDN]
