MANHATTAN — The man accused of abducting and killing Laura Garza, a woman he met in a Manhattan nightclub three years ago, pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday.
Michael Mele admitted killing aspiring dancer Laura Garza, 25, after meeting her in the Chelsea club Marquee and taking her back to his home in upstate Walkill, the Daily News reported.
He will be sentenced to 23 years behind bars after taking a plea deal, the News said.
"It happened very quickly,” Mele, 26, said of the 2008 killing, the News reported.
"I put my hand over her mouth and partially over her nose, and shortly after that she stopped yelling. She stopped moving. And I realized that something very bad happened."
They were last seen together in Newburgh. Garza's body wasn't found until April 2010.
Mele confessed to suffocating Garza during a fight after she learned that he had a girlfriend, the News reported. He stuffed her body in a laundry basket and eventually dumped it in a wooded area in Scranton, Penn., the News reported.
