Van Der Sloot Pretty In Green

Van der Sloot sentenced to 28 years in prison for Peru murder

Joran van der Sloot appears at his sentencing hearing in Peru on Friday.
January 13th, 2012
12:25 PM ET

Joran van der Sloot on Friday was sentenced to 28 years in a Peruvian prison for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores.

With credit for time served, his sentence would end on June 10, 2038.

He was also ordered to pay about $74,500 to the victim's family.

On Wednesday, the 24-year-old Dutch national confessed to the charges of "qualified murder" and simple robbery.

It was an apparent attempt to win a more lenient sentence, using a plea called an "anticipated conclusion of the process" under Peruvian law.

Under sentencing guidelines, the panel of judges could have ordered van der Sloot imprisoned for as much as 30 years.

Police say van der Sloot murdered Flores in his Lima hotel room in May 2010, then took money and bank cards from her wallet and fled to Chile, where he was arrested a few days later.

Investigators believe he killed the Peruvian woman after she found something related to the case of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway on van der Sloot's computer while she was visiting him in his hotel room.

Van der Sloot was among the last people seen with Holloway, 18, before she went missing on the island of Aruba in 2005. He was detained twice, but never charged, in Holloway's disappearance.

The girl's body has never been found.

Alabama Probate Judge Alan King on Thursday signed an order declaring Holloway legally dead.

Van der Sloot faces possible extradition to the United States in a matter tied to Holloway's disappearance and her family.

In June 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted him on charges of wire fraud and extortion after allegations surfaced that he tried to extort $250,000 from Holloway's mother, Beth. Van der Sloot offered to provide what turned out to be bogus information about the whereabouts of Holloway's remains in exchange for the money, according to the indictment.

He was allegedly given a total of $25,000, and authorities believe he used that money to travel to Peru and participate in a poker tournament, where he met Flores.