costa rica murder

Espinoza Martinez received 16 years in prison.

Espinoza Martinez has been charged by the Pavas Prosecutor's Office with 'homicidio simple.'

Costa Rican authorities have extended preventive detention of the main suspect in the slaying of U.S. aid worker Sondra Elizondo last December.

In an interview with The Tico Times on Friday, the 23-year-old former boyfriend of Sondra Elizondo, who was arrested last week in connection with her killing in a Barrio La California hotel room, claimed he was not at the hotel when the 46-year-old U.S. woman was stabbed to death.

A suspected hit man was killed at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning in the district of San Francisco de Dos Ríos by four masked men wielding AK-47s.