LOWERCASEFAJARDO, Puerto Rico — A Puerto Rican man pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping and killing a pregnant Georgia tourist whom he kidnapped along a rural island road.
Eliezer Marquez Navedo pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and two sexual assault charges in the Feb. 4 slaying of Sara Kuszak.
He stood expressionless as his attorney read his plea, keeping his head down in a nearly empty courtroom in the eastern coastal city of Fajardo.
He faces life in prison at a June 1 sentencing hearing.
Kuszak was jogging along a remote road in eastern Puerto Rico when she was abducted, stuffed in a car trunk, raped and slashed in the throat. Police say Marquez acknowledged killing her after they arrested him with bloodstains on his shirt and pants.
She was about five months pregnant at the time. She had been living in Savannah, Ga., and was visiting the U.S. Caribbean island with her fiance and friends. The couple had planned to marry in the Caribbean last March.
Kuszak made a frantic phone call to her fiance from the trunk of the car and told him she was going to die, her mother said.
A family friend, Matt Daniel, on Tuesday said he was relieved to know that her confessed killer is going to prison.
“I’m glad he ‘fessed up and that he’s getting what he deserves,” Daniel said in a telephone interview from Georgia.
