BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (NewsNation) — A Birmingham judge accepted a plea deal in the Natalee Holloway extortion case, sentencing prime suspect Joran van der Sloot to 240 months in prison, and he will have to pay $25,100 to the Holloway family in restitution.
Van der Sloot, the prime suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, appeared in front of Judge Anna M. Manasco Wednesday, where he pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and wire fraud. Manasco also disclosed that van der Sloot admitted to killing Natalee Holloway and disposed of her remains behind closed doors.
It’s important to clarify that Van der Sloot is not and will not be charged in Holloway’s death. In fact, his admission will not be used against him in any other way due to the plea deal.
“You changed the course of our lives and you turned them upside down,” her mother Beth Holloway said in court, standing a few feet from van der Sloot. “You are a killer.”
In 2010, van der Sloot tried to extort $250,000 from Beth Holloway to reveal the alleged location of her daughter’s remains.
The 36-year-old pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal that Holloway’s attorney says is contingent on providing new information about the missing teen. In addition to serving time in prison and paying restitution to the Holloway family, van der Sloot will be required to serve 3 years of supervision after his release.
The judge explained that she agreed to the maximum sentence because he admitted to killing Natalee Holloway and scamming her mother, which she said was “particularly heinous.”
Natalie Holloway went missing during a high school graduation trip to Aruba with classmates from Mountain Brook High School in 2005. She was last seen leaving a bar with van der Sloot. He was questioned in the disappearance but was never prosecuted. A judge declared Holloway dead, but her body has never been found.
In court, van der Sloot apologized to the Holloway family and his own family, saying he hoped the statements he made help the investigation and healing. He told them he was not the same person he was back then.
Beth Holloway proceeded to berate van der Sloot with an impact statement, saying for 18 years he denied killing her daughter and caused indescribable pain to her and her family.
“The grief extends deep into my soul,” Beth Holloway said.
Attorney John Q. Kelly, who represented Holloway’s mother during the alleged extortion attempt, said the deal was contingent on van der Sloot providing details about what happened to Holloway.
Van der Sloot agreed to assist law enforcement in the investigation into extortion, Natalee’s disappearance and to give all the information he knows about the case. He also allowed Natalee’s parents to hear his debrief with law enforcement and agreed to a polygraph during the debrief.
Because van der Sloot is not an American citizen, pleading guilty means he could be immediately removed from the U.S. and may not be able to return.
Van der Sloot will serve out his sentence in Peru, where he has 22 years left of a 28-year prison sentence for killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores in 2010. He was temporarily extradited by the Peruvian government for the Holloway case.
If van der Sloot is released from Peruvian prison early, he will have to serve the remainder of his sentence in the U.S. The 36-year-old waived his right to appeal his conviction.
Van der Sloot will be removed from the U.S. “as quickly as reasonably possible.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
