LOWERCASEFAJARDO, Puerto Rico — A Puerto Rican man pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping, raping and killing a pregnant Georgia tourist who made a frantic phone call to her fiance from the trunk of her assailant’s car.
Eliezer Marquez Navedo pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping and two sexual assault charges in the Feb. 4 slaying of Sara Kuszak.
Marquez stood expressionless, head up, as his attorney Hector Jimenez read the plea in a nearly empty courtroom in the eastern coastal city of Fajardo.
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 U.S. island for federal crimes.
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.
Prosecutor Francisco Sanchez said he was not surprised.
“We have significant and overwhelming evidence,” he said, referring to DNA samples found at the scene that police say are a match for Marquez.
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 U.S. 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, 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.
A friend of Kuszak’s family, Matt Daniel, said Tuesday he is relieved to know that Marquez 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.
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 analyzing the victims’ wounds for any similarities, but Lt. Nelson Torres said the investigation has stalled because no witnesses have materialized.
