Oct. 23, 2002 – Jeffrey Warner, the man prosecutors call a serial rapist, has pleaded guilty to one count of murder and three counts of rape. Attorney General Iver Stridiron said under the plea agreement the defendant, charged with attacking several teen-age girls near Tutu Park Mall, faces at least 60 years in jail.
The government's case against Warner, 40, ended in Territorial Court on Monday, when he entered a plea of guilty to killing Yathera Corona, 19, in April 1999. Corona's body was found near the entrance to the Midas Auto Service Experts shop in Tutu Park Mall the morning after she was last seen alive, leaving her job at the nearby Plaza Extra supermarket.
Warner also pleaded guilty to aggravated first-degree rape in three cases involving girls aged 12 to 15. Stridiron said Warner is suspected of having committed other crimes as well. "There were actually eight victims," the attorney general said, but the statute of limitations had run out in some of the cases. He said the attacks took place near the shopping mall between 1996 and 2001.
Had the cases in which he entered guilty pleas gone to trial, Warner could, if convicted, have faced a sentence of life in prison without parole. Sentencing on the guilty pleas is scheduled for Nov. 22.
Stridiron said Warner would have to serve at least half of his sentence, or more than 30 years, before becoming eligible for parole. Because he is a native of another Caribbean nation, prosecutors added a provision to his sentence for automatic deportation if he completes his prison sentence and is released.
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