PHOENIX – A man who confessed to fatally stomping a Phoenix woman over a racial slur has been convicted of murder.
Maricopa County prosecutors say Jose Preciliano Quintero was convicted Monday of first-degree murder, sexual abuse and kidnapping.
Prosecutors say Quintero cannot be sentenced to death because he was 16 at the time of the December 2008 slaying. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison.
Quintero told police he was upset because his girlfriend had just broken up with him and that he snapped when 38-year-old Helen Coulter called him a racial slur.
Authorities say Quintero admitted dragging Coulter to a vacant lot, stomping on her and sexually abusing her with a stick. An autopsy showed Coulter died of blunt force trauma.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com