PROF PLEADS TO ROLE IN 1995 MEAT CLEAVER MURDER

Norma Esparza

A psychology professor has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter in the cold case murder of her alleged rapist who was found hacked to death with a meat cleaver 20-years ago.
Norma Esparza told a California courtroom that she never meant for Gonzalo Ramirez to be killed in the Spring of 1995, but that her ex-boyfriend Gianni Anthony Van had forced her to point him out after she told him about the rape.
The following morning Orange County cops found the 24-year-old's body at the side of the road, beaten and hacked to death with a meat cleaver.
Esparza, a professor at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland was arrested two-years ago when she tried to reenter the U.S. for an academic conference two years ago.

The 40-year-old had previously rejected a plea that would have given her a three-year sentence. She is expected to be sentenced to six-years in state prison and will testify against her co-defendants according to the Orange County district attorney's office.
According to the LA Times Co-defendants Van, 45, and Shannon Ray Gries, 43, are expected to go on trial next year, charged with felony murder in the commission of a kidnapping.
A third suspect, Diane Tran, 45 has already pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. Her husband
Kody Tran, who was also a suspect in the case, shot himself during a standoff with police.