FORT MYERS, Fla. — Wednesday morning, Jorge Guerrero pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering Diana Alvarez in 2016.
As part of the plea deal, he will not face the death penalty and will spend the rest of his life in prison. A charge of molestation was dropped.
The deal also says that he will serve his 40 year federal prison sentence before he serves time for killing Alvarez.
Alvarez was nine years old on May 29th, 2016, when she went missing from her San Carlos Park home.
It didn't take long for detectives to track down a person of interest: Jorge Guerrero Torres - a family friend, according to investigators.
The detectives working the case were able to track Guerrero-Torres, but that did not lead them to Diana.
The suspect was questioned about her disappearance.
But investigators also questioned him about allegations of sexual images of children, including Diana, found on Guerrero's phone.
One year after the nine-year-old went missing, Guerrero was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for the production and possession of child pornography.
But the search for Diana Alvarez continued through May 2018.
That's when a grand jury returned an indictment for first-degree murder, kidnapping as well as lewd and lasicivious molestation against Jorge Manuel Guerrero Torres for the death of Diana Alvarez.
At the time, State Attorney Amira Fox announced that she would seek the death penalty in this case.
Two years later, Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced that a body located by worked in Osceola County had been identified as Diana Alvarez.
In February of this year, a judge granted a motion to throw out some of Guerrero's initial post-arrest interviews with detectives - citing a language barrier.
The defense also said Guerrero should not face the death penalty due to an intellectual disability.
