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Ex-Wisconsin policeman pleads guilty to Minnesota killing

By: Associated Press//February 3, 2017//

Ex-Wisconsin policeman pleads guilty to Minnesota killing

By: Associated Press//February 3, 2017//

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FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2014, file photo, former suburban Milwaukee police officer Steven Zelich, left, of West Allis, Wis., appears in court in Kenosha, Wis. Zelich, who is accused of killing two women and ditching their bodies in suitcases along a rural Wisconsin highway, pleaded guilty Friday, Feb. 3, 2017, in the slaying of one of the women at a Rochester, Minn., hotel in 2013. Zelich was sentenced to 25 years in prison. (Sean Krajacic /The Kenosha News via AP, File)
The former suburban Milwaukee police officer Steven Zelich, left, of West Allis, Wis., appears in court in August 2014 in Kenosha, Wis. Zelich, who is accused of killing two women and ditching their bodies in suitcases along a rural Wisconsin highway, pleaded guilty Friday, Feb. 3, 2017, in the slaying of one of the women at a Rochester, Minn., hotel in 2013. Zelich was sentenced to 25 years in prison. (Sean Krajacic /The Kenosha News via AP, File)

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — A former suburban Milwaukee police officer accused of killing two women and ditching their bodies in suitcases along a rural Wisconsin highway has pleaded guilty in the slaying of one of the women in Minnesota.

Steven Zelich, 55, of West Allis, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Friday for killing a woman at a Rochester hotel in 2013. KTTC-TV (http://bit.ly/2kxO0Z3 ) reports Zelich was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Zelich said he accidentally choked Laura Simonson, a 37-year-old woman from Farmington, Minnesota, to death with a rope during sex.

Zelich has already been sentenced to 35 years in prison in Wisconsin for the death in 2012 of Jenny Gamez, a 19-year-old woman from Cottage Grove, Oregon. Authorities say he met both women online, choked them at hotels during sexual encounters and hid their bodies in suitcases. He will serve the Minnesota sentence after completing his Wisconsin sentence.
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Information from: KTTC-TV, http://www.kttc.com

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