Wisconsin Man Who Called News Station Confessing to 1982 Killing Pleads Guilty to Reduced Charge
A man who called a TV station in 2015 to allegedly confessed killing a 13-year-old girl in Milwaukee in 1982 pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a lesser charge, PEOPLE confirms.
Jose Ferreira’s trial in the death of seventh-grader Carrie Ann Jopek was set to begin in Wisconsin on Tuesday, but instead, the 51-year-old accepted a plea deal from prosecutors to attempted sexual assault and false imprisonment, according to court records obtained by PEOPLE.
Ferreira will be sentenced on March 17. Officials have yet to comment on the potential length of his impending sentence.
After his arrest in 2015, Ferreira told investigators that he was 17 when he killed Jopek, who was 13, court documents allege.
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Ferreira said he met Jopek at a house party and when she resisted his romantic advances, he pushed her down a flight of stairs. The girl, who according to Ferreira had agreed to kiss him in the home’s basement, broke her neck on the way down and died.
Thinking she was merely unconscious from the fall, Ferreira had sex with Jopek’s dead body, he told police.
Ferreira admitted to hiding Jopek’s body in the dirt under a nearby porch. Her remains were found 17 months later by a contractor who was doing work on the home.
After his arrest, Ferreira pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges. He was detained by Milwaukee police two weeks after he allegedly called WISN 12 News in Milwaukee and described Jopek’s killing in vivid detail.
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Ferreira purportedly told the news station he pushed Jopek down the stairs at a house party after she had second thoughts about making out with him.
A court official tells PEOPLE that Jopek’s family signed off on Ferreira’s plea deal before Tuesday’s hearing.
Ferreira’s lawyer was unavailable for comment Thursday.
