Joran van der Sloot said he wanted to confess to the murder of?Stephany Flores in Peru in 2010. ?Van der Sloot is still a suspect?in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba in 2005. ? ?
Joran?van?der?Sloot?appears ready to accept responsibility for the killing of a Peruvian woman five years to the day after the disappearance in Aruba of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway, for which he remains the prime suspect.
Skip to next paragraphThe Dutch citizen sought and received more time to decide how to plead as his trial opened Friday in the May 30, 2010, murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, whom he met at a Lima casino.
He said he was inclined to confess but doesn't accept the aggravated murder charges the prosecution seeks.
The presiding magistrate of the three-judge panel, Victoria Montoya, said the trial would resume Jan. 11.
When asked moments earlier by Montoya to enter a plea,?Van?der?Sloot?answered in Spanish:
"I want to give a sincere confession but I don't agree with all the aggravating factors the prosecutor is putting on me. Can I have more time to think about this?"
The 24-year-old Dutch citizen had repeatedly shaken his head as the prosecutor described for the judges howVan?der?Sloot?allegedly "brutally" beat and strangled the victim in his Lima hotel room, intending to rob her.
Van?der?Sloot?long ago admitted to police that he killed Flores, a business administration student.
But he claimed in that confession that it was in a fit of rage after she discovered on his laptop?Van?der?Sloot's connection to Holloway's disappearance on Aruba, the Caribbean island where he was raised. Police forensic experts have disputed that version of events.
Defense attorney Jose Luis Jimenez told The Associated Press before the hearing that there was a 70 percent chance?Van?der?Sloot?would plead guilty, which could help him get a reduced sentence.
Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year prison sentence on murder and theft charges, arguing the killing was premeditated and that?Van?der?Sloot?attempted to cover it up, fleeing to Chile, where he was captured days later.
Jimenez contends his client was in a state of emotional distress when he killed Flores and would "seek to reduce the charge from first-degree murder to manslaughter," which carries a prison sentence of from eight to 20 years.
"He has accepted the murder," Jimenez said after the hearing, but not with the "aggravating factors of cruelty and ferocity."
If he pleads guilty at next Wednesday's hearing, the three judges will have 48 hours to sentence him, court officials say.
Van?der?Sloot?entered the courtroom in Lurigancho prison in Lima on Friday morning in a blue blazer and faded blue jeans with a bulletproof vest beneath the jacket. He sported a crew cut and wore an untucked long-sleeved button-down gray shirt.
He took off the vest in the courtroom, which lacked air conditioning, and fidgeted, yawning several times and slouching in his chair while attorneys for both sides discussed new evidence and witnesses they were entering in the record.
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