GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) - A Colorado teen charged with kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old girl pleaded guilty Tuesday to all 15 charges against him, against the advice of his attorneys.
Austin Sigg, 18, could be sent to prison for the rest of his life for the slaying of Jessica Ridgeway in Westminster nearly a year ago. Jessica was abducted while walking to school, and her disappearance panicked thousands of residents in Denver's western suburbs.
Sigg also pleaded guilty Tuesday to a May 2012 attack on a 22-year-old jogger at a lake in Jessica's neighborhood.
Prosecutors said Sigg entered the pleas because of overwhelming evidence against him. His trial would have started Thursday.
"The writing was on the wall," Jefferson County District Attorney Peter Weir said after the hearing.
Sigg faces a minimum sentence of 40 years in prison with the possibility of parole when he is sentenced after a hearing starting Nov. 18. Prosecutors asked Judge Stephen Munsinger to impose consecutive sentences on some of the other charges so Sigg spends the rest of his life behind bars. Sigg's lawyers argue the law doesn't allow that.
Sigg cannot face the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the slaying.
"In this case, there has been justice for Jessica," Weir said.