Man Sentenced In Beating Death Of Minnesota Woman
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -- A former truck driver who pleaded guilty to killing a Minnesota woman in New Mexico in 2001 has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
New Mexico prosecutors say 40-year-old Ronald Ralph King was sentenced Friday.
The Las Cruces Sun-News says King pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping 25-year-old Heather Lynn Eiche from a truck stop in Anthony, N.M., and beating her to death.
Authorities say King admitted to the killing in 2009 while serving a 10-year sentence for two child rapes in Virginia. He was extradited to New Mexico last year.
Eiche's body was found in February 2001 buried under an old mattress, tires and other debris near a drainage dam just north of the truck stop.
An autopsy showed she died from blunt force trauma to the head.
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