Forty-three-year-old Alfredo Reyes Ortiz of Allentown had been scheduled to go on trial next month on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a mandatory life sentence. With Tuesday's plea in Lehigh County Court, he faces a maximum 40-year term when he is sentenced next month.
Ortiz was charged in the July 2009 death of 29-year-old Francesca Isley, the mother of his child. The Morning Call of Allentown says public defender Earl Supplee said his client's plea acknowledged that he beat her with "conscious disregard for extreme risk" but without the specific intent to kill her.
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Information from: The Morning Call
