Joran van der Sloot is expected to plead guilty to the murder of Peruvian lesbian Stefany Florez, claiming temporary insanity, his attorneys told the press Tuesday.
According to the Associated Press, van der Sloot's attorney is seeking a lesser charge in exchange for admitting guilt.
"In his statement to the police, Joran admitted that he committed the crime, but it was not in the way that the police said it happened," his attorney Maximo Altez said in the report. "We have submitted a motion to show that he shouldn't be charged with aggravated murder, but with violent emotion murder."
If a Peruvian court finds him guilty of violent emotion murder, which is like manslaughter in the U.S., he could face a maximum of five years in prison. He could be sentenced to 15 years if convicted of murder.
Van der Sloot, 22, was arrested in June in Chile and returned to Lima for questioning, where he confessed to murdering Flores, who was 21. She was killed May 30, almost exactly five years to the day after Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba, where van der Sloot’s late father was a prominent judge.
Though van der Sloot has been arrested twice in connection with Holloway's 2005 disappearance and death, he has not been charged. He remains a prime suspect in her case.
He faces federal wire fraud and extortion charges in the U.S. for allegedly trying to get $250,000 from Holloway's family in exchange for her body.
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