A Cuban exile pleaded guilty Tuesday to a murder conspiracy charge in the 1976 car-bomb assassination of former Chilean Ambassador Orlando Letelier.
Virgilio Paz Romero was alleged to have detonated the remote-controlled bomb that killed Letelier and aide Ronni Moffitt on Washington's Embassy Row on Sept. 21, 1976.Paz, who was a fugitive for 12 years before his arrest in April, entered the guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to seek a prison term of 12 years, although Robinson could overrule that and impose up to life in prison. The judge scheduled sentencing for Sept. 5.
Paz was arrested April 23 in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he had been working as a landscaper since 1980. He was identified after the car bombing was re-enacted on the television program "America's Most Wanted."