He bowed his head later when his lawyer argued that he killed Stephany Flores as a result of ‘‘extreme psychological trauma’’ he suffered from the fallout of the 2005 disappearance on the Caribbean island of Aruba of Natalee Holloway.
Conferring privately with defense attorney Jose Jimenez before leaving the courtroom, Van der Sloot briefly smiled.
The judges have 48 hours to render a sentence and the presiding magistrate, Victoria Montoya, said it would reconvene Friday to do so.
Van der Sloot’s trial opened last week but was adjourned to Wednesday after he asked for more time to decide how to plead. He said then that he was inclined to confess but did not accept the aggravated murder charges the prosecution sought.
Van der Sloot, who wore faded jeans and an untucked light-blue button-down shirt, entered the plea in hopes of a reduced sentence.
He had confessed to the May 30, 2010, killing long ago.
Shortly afterward, he told police he killed Flores in a fit of rage after she discovered on his laptop his connection to the disappearance of Holloway. His lawyer claims the killing was manslaughter, for which the minimum sentence is 5 years.
Police forensic experts disputed that claim and the attorney for the victim’s family contends Van der Sloot killed Flores, a business student from a prominent family, in order to rob her. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year prison sentence on first-degree murder and theft charges.
The prosecution van der Sloot killed Flores with ‘‘ferocity’’ and ‘‘cruelty,’’ beating and then strangling her in his Lima hotel room, concealing the crime and fleeing to Chile, where he was caught several days later after Flores’ rotting body was found in his hotel room.
Prosecutors say he took more than $200 in cash plus credit cards from the victim and made his initial getaway by driving her car to a different part of Lima.
