Killer pleads guilty to brutal slaying of two-year-old girl he kidnapped while she slept

Killer pleads guilty to brutal slaying of two-year-old girl he kidnapped while she slept

 

A burglar who kidnapped and killed 2-year-old girl before dumping her body by a railway track has pleaded guilty to the slaying.

Aaron Noyer, 22, from Erie, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to life in prison for the second-degree murder of Elizabeth Neimeic, who he snatched from her bed and she slept.

He pleaded guilty as part of a deal which saw prosecutors agreeing to drop charges of aggravated indecent assault, kidnapping and abuse of a corpse.

Elizabeth Neimeic was snatched from her bed during a burglary at her family's home in Pennsylvania last year

In return Noyer cannot appeal the case and will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Erie County District Attorney Jack Daneri told AOL News: ‘The death penalty was not an option for us, so the next best thing was that this individual be incarcerated for the rest of his life without the chance of seeing freedom again and putting him among us again.’

Killer: Aaron Noyer pleaded guilty to the murder of the two-year-old. He was sentenced to life without parole

Prosecutors had initially pushed for the death penalty, but a judge refused because of state laws with mean anyone with an IQ less than 70 cannot be executed.

Family members reported Elizabeth missing on August 1 last year after they found her bed empty.

Police managed to track Noyer from fingerprints left at the scene.

When questioned police claim Noyer said he snatched the girl during a burglary when he climbed through her window.

On August 2 he led police to the site where he had dumped the body.

According to police, he took the girl to a nearby railway track where he stripped her then sexually assaulted and strangled her.

Daneri explained how the plea bargain was agreed.

He said: ‘The judge found that the defendant met the criteria for mental retardation and could not be put to death. So, we made an offer to the defendant that he could plead guilty.’

‘He waived all his appellate rights to challenge the sentence, to challenge any pretrial rulings or to challenge the effectiveness of his attorneys.

Prosecutors had pushed for the death penalty for the murder, but this was denied because the killed had an IQ less than 70

‘All those rights they would have on appeal he waived as part of his agreement.’

A final condition of the plea bargain was that Noyer also pleaded guilty to the rape of a woman two days before the brutal slaying of the two-year-old.

Police discovered four months ago that DNA taken from the rape victim matched Noyer and charged him.

He will be sentenced on the separate charge on July 25 following assessments.