"BAD DATE COP" Steven Zelich pleads guilty to fatally choking Craigslist whore JENNY GAMEZ in sex enconter, hiding body in suitcase - He also faces similar murder charges in the killing of Laura Simonson

Ex-cop pleads guilty to choking woman in sex encounter, hiding body in suitcase

Kenosha — Former West Allis police officer Steven Zelich pleaded guilty Monday to killing an Oregon woman during a dangerous sexual encounter in 2012 and ditching her body in a suitcase along a highway in Walworth County, where it was discovered in June 2014.

Zelich, 54, is also charged of killing a Minnesota woman in that state, in similar fashion, in 2013. Her body was found in a second suitcase along with the Oregon victim. Jury selection in the Kenosha case had been scheduled to begin Monday.

In a plea deal that had been extended early in the case, Zelich agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of first degree reckless homicide with use of a dangerous weapon (a rope used to choke the victim for erotic purposes), and prosecutors agreed to dismiss the original charge of first degree intentional homicide, which carries a mandatory life sentence upon conviction.

At his sentencing March 30, Zelich will now face a maximum prison sentence of 45 years, plus up to five more years for the hiding a corpse, to which he also pleaded guilty Monday before Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder.

The Kenosha County charges were for the August 2012 death of of 19-year-old Jenny Gamez, of Cottage Grove, Ore. Zelish is also charged with murder in the killing of 37-year-old Laura Simonson the following year, but she died in Minnesota, so the charges were filed there.

A key ruling in the Wisconsin case came weeks ago when a judge allowed prosecutors to tell jurors about Simonson's death.

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