A U.S. Army sergeant from North Carolina has pleaded guilty to murder in the 2008 death of a soldier from Kentucky who was pregnant with his child.
The Fayetteville Observer reports that Sgt. Edgar Patino of Hope Mills agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a lesser sentence.
A Cumberland County Superior Court judge has sentenced Patino to between 16 and 20 years in prison.
The 29-year-old was arrested in July 2008 after investigators found the body of 23-year-old Spc. Megan Touma of Cold Spring, Ky. in a Fayetteville hotel bathtub.
Touma was seven months’ pregnant with Patino’s child. The two had been stationed together first in Germany, then at Fort Bragg.
