Birmingham, Ala (WIAT) Admitted killer Joran van der Sloot finally has a trial date in Peru. Media there say the trial has been set for January 6 on charges he killed and robbed 21 year old student Stephany Flores.
The Dutchman confessed to Peruvian investigators he killed Flores in a heated argument after she found material about Natalee Holloway on his laptop. Natalee is the Mountain Brook teen who vanished on a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005. She was last seen with van der Sloot who, although questioned repeatedly by Aruban authorities, was never charged in her disappearance. In one of many bizarre twists in the tangled cases, Flores' corpse was found in van der Sloot's Lima hotel room five years to the day of Natalee's disapperance.
Natalee's family has long insisted the the Aruban police were unduly influenced by van der Sloot's now deceased father, a local judge. The Dutchman faces a totally different dynamic in Peru where his victim's family wields some political and social influence.
In September, the victim's family asked a three-judge panel for a more stringent charge akin to aggravated murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, but the panel of judges ruled on the prosecution's side.
Van der Sloot's defense attorney Luis Jimenez Navarro told CNN'S In Session this was a big win for his client. If Van der Sloot is found guilty and sentenced to the maximum penalty, under Peru's jail reduction credits, he may only serve a third of the time.
The Flores family remains hopeful this will not be the case. An attorney for the family tells In Session under the Peruvian justice system the charges could change once the trial begins.
"We can ask the Prosecutor to modify the indictment as new facts come out during the trial, but on the first day of trial we expect Van der Sloot to plead guilty to both charges. It seems this will be in his best interest,“ the attorney said.
Even if van der Sloot is allowed to plead to the lesser charges, the Natalee Holloway case is still chasing him. A federal grand jury here in Birmingham indicted him on charges of wire fraud and extortion. The FBI claims van der Sloot took money from the Holloways in exchange for information about Natalee's fate. The feds say he took the money but never produced meaningful information for the family. It's believed he used the money for a gambling trip to a poker tournament in Peru...where he met Stephany Flores in the casino.
