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Man Found Guilty Of Strangling Nursing Student To Death Before Fleeing To Nicaragua
“I mean it’s not over, and there will always be an emptiness that’s there, but it was nice to see that Nicaragua did a really professional, bang up job to get the job done," Haley Anderson's father said of the verdict against Orlando Tercero, which was delivered in a Nicaraguan court.
A man was found guilty of killing a Binghamton University nursing student at his off-campus apartment in New York.
Orlando Tercero, 23, was found guilty of femicide by a Nicaraguan court Friday after Tercero had fled to the country shortly after he strangled 22-year-old Haley Anderson in March 2018 in Binghamton, local station WIVT reports.
Nicaragua refused to extradite Tercero—who had dual citizenship in the United States and Nicaragua—but they charged him with second-degree murder and worked with officials in the United States to try the 24-year-old—even having some witnesses testify from the United States via a video link.
“We saw something that we haven’t seen before, but we saw two governments working together, law enforcement agencies working together,” Broome County District Attorney Steve Cornwell said after the verdict, according to The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin. “Although not what we wanted, we wanted to have the trial here, but we saw justice take place in a courtroom on an international stage.”
Tercero and Anderson had reportedly been in an “on and off” relationship for about a year but when Tercero wanted a more serious relationship, Anderson did not return his feelings, according to testimony in the trial.
Prosecutors had argued that Tercero killed Anderson out of jealousy after she reconnected with an ex-boyfriend, the paper reports.
Her body was later discovered in Tercero’s apartment, partly tucked into his bed.
A note was found near the body that read “I never imagined doing this. I’m sorry,” radio station WNBF reports.
Tercero fled to Nicaragua just one day after the murder, according to The New York Post.
The judge decided the verdict Friday after deliberating for about an hour and a half.
Anderson’s father, Gordon Anderson, told The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin that the verdict has brought the family some measure of justice.
“There was some ease to the heartache and a little bit of a conclusion,” he said. “I mean it’s not over, and there will always be an emptiness that’s there, but it was nice to see that Nicaragua did a really professional, bang up job to get the job done.”
Her mother, Karen Anderson, also spoke after the verdict.
“When this all started, I just kept my faith in the system, and keeping my faith in the system proved to be the right thing to do,” she said.
A sentencing hearing will be scheduled for a later date and Tercero could spend up to 30 years in a Nicaraguan prison for the murder.
