LIMA, Peru — Joran van der Sloot knew his guilty plea in the strangulation death of a young woman he met at a Lima casino was a big gamble as he tried to get a reduced sentence. On Friday, the poker-loving Dutchman lost.
A three-judge panel sentenced the Aruban man to 28 years in prison, discarding his claims of contrition in a killing his attorney said was triggered by trauma from being the prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway.
Asked whether he accepted the sentence, Van der Sloot, standing in a green T-shirt and jeans in a hot Lima courtroom, said he would appeal.
The sentencing marked the latest chapter in the tabloid-sustaining saga and came a day after a judge in Alabama declared Holloway legally dead as her parents try to bring Van der Sloot, 24, to the U.S. for a related crime.
“I believe he is beyond rehabilitation,” said Dave Holloway in Birmingham, Ala., after that hearing.
The Peruvian judges said Friday that because of time already served, Van der Sloot’s sentence would end in 2038.
While the parents of Holloway and Flores want him to experience the greater deprivation of a U.S. prison, they will have to wait for him to serve his time before any extradition on U.S. charges related to his alleged extortion of Holloway’s mother, a Peruvian legal expert said.
Late Friday, prison authorities said that Van der Sloot had been transferred to the high-security prison in northern Lima in response to reports that he had enjoyed privileges such as television, Internet access and a cellphone in Castro Castro prison. Piedras Gordas holds local crime bosses and terrorism convicts, including Shining Path guerrillas.
Earlier Friday, the three female judges showed no sign of believing his contrition for the May 2010 killing of Stephany Flores. Van der Sloot stood passively as the clerk detailed how he elbowed Flores, a 21-year- old business student, in the face, beat her repeatedly, then strangled her with his bloodied shirt.
The judges ordered Van der Sloot to pay $75,000 in reparations to the victim’s family. No members of Van der Sloot’s family attended the trial.
