Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to the murder of Stephany Flores, a Peruvian woman he had met at a casino in Lima in 2010.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the murder took place exactly five years to the day after the disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.
Joran van der Sloot remains the main suspect in that case. He was apparently in fairly good spirits after formally confessing to the killing today:
In court in Peru, he said he is "truly sorry" for the killing of Flores. He said that from the first moment, he "wanted to confess sincerely" to the killing.
His lawyer stated that van der Sloot killed Flores as a result of "extreme psychological trauma" he suffered from the fallout over the Holloway case.
Van der Sloot faces a possible 30 years in prison in the killing, though the guilty plea was aimed at winning a lighter sentence than that maximum.
The defense had claimed the killing was manslaughter, as it was not premeditated. That crime carries a minimum sentence of just five years.
In a confession, he had said he killed her in a fit of rage after she discovered on his laptop that he'd been linked to the Holloway disappearance.
Prosecutors claimed, however, that he plotted to kill and rob Flores after learning she had won a lot of money at the casino where they met.
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