Van der Sloot admitted killing Natalee Holloway during extortion case; Apologizes in court

Joran van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extortion and wire charges, and was sentenced to serve a decade in prison during a hearing in a U.S. federal courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama on Wednesday. As part of his plea deal, Van der Sloot was required to tell his side of what happened the night 18-year-old Alabama woman Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba in 2005. The judge in the case, and Holloway's mother, said that Van der Sloot admitted to killing the woman.

The 36-year-old Dutch man was in court on accusations of trying to obtain 250,000 dollars from Holloway's family in exchange for his admission of guilt. Van der Sloot was one of the people who last saw Holloway, but to date he has never been formally charged in her disappearance.

In court, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco asked Van der Sloot a series of questions to make sure he understood the ramifications of entering a guilty plea in the extortion case. Once satisfied with his responses, Manasco said, "I therefore accept his plea of guilty and judge him to be guilty," according to NBC News. She immediately sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

“I have considered the factual statements about extortion and wire fraud but also considered your confession to the brutal murder of Natalee Holloway,” the judge said. Holloway went missing during a high school graduation trip. She was last seen with Van der Sloot and two others as they left a nightclub. The three claimed they left the missing woman at a hotel. Van der Sloot was 17 at the time. Her body was never found, and she was legally declared dead seven years later.

His U.S. prison sentence will run concurrently to a prison term he is currently serving in Peru for an unrelated murder. In 2010, the same year Van der Sloot was accused of killing a Peruvian woman, he allegedly wrote an email to Holloway's family in which he said he would tell them where the woman's body was located in exchange for a quarter of a million dollars in cash. He also promised to say exactly what happened the night she went missing if he was paid.

He later changed terms of the deal, saying he would accept 25,000 dollars up front to bring one witness to the location of her body, and Holloway's family could pay the remaining 225,000 dollars once her body was found. He was allegedly given 10,000 dollars in cash. Afterwards, another 15,000 dollars was wired to him in a bank transfer, which led to the wire fraud charge.

Van der Sloot says he's sorry; Holloway's mother rejects his apology

Van der Sloot said that he hoped Holloway's family could find closure. “I would like to apologize to the Holloway family," he told the court on Wednesday while wearing an orange jailhouse jumpsuit. "I am no longer that person back then than I am today. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ, he helped me through all of this."

Holloway's mother, Beth, was also given an opportunity to address Van der Sloot, saying she still finds him at fault for her death. "You are a killer and I want you to remember that every time that jail cell door slams," she said. "You look like hell, Joran," Holloway continued. "I don't see how you're going to make it," she stated.

"Natalee would be 36 years old. I think of the doctor she would be," Holloway added. "You terminated her potential, her dream, you terminated that when you bludgeoned her to death."

Van der Sloot was already serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the murder of 21-year-old Peruvian student Stephany Flores in 2010 and another 18-year sentence for drug smuggling. Flores was killed in Van der Sloot's hotel room. The prosecution's case suggested Flores discovered that Van der Sloot was suspected in Holloway's disappearance, and that was the Dutch man's motivation for killing Flores in Lima.

Van der Sloot to return to prison in Peru

He was extradited from Peru to the United States after being charged with defrauding and extorting money from Holloway's family. In exchange for his confession and an admission of guilt for extorting Holloway’s family, the prosecutor in Alabama reportedly said their office would recommend that Van der Sloot serve a reduced sentence of 20 years in prison.

Van der Sloot is expected to be flown back to Peru to serve the rest of his sentence as part of the deal authorities in the United States made with their counterparts in Peru. That sentence ends in 2045.

Should authorities in Peru release him before October 2043 for any reason, he will be extradited back to the United States to serve any remainder of the 20-year sentence Manasco handed him when finding Van der Sloot guilty.

Beth Holloway was expected to speak to reporters outside the Hugo Black Federal Building, which houses the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. About 30 reporters and television crews were gathered on the courthouse steps while the hearing took place inside.