Fifteen years after an American University professor was found beaten and strangled inside her Bethesda, Maryland, home, a jury convicted her former lover of second-degree murder.
Jorge Landeros, 55, was a con man who took advantage of Sue Ann Marcum in a yearslong relationship that was part financial and part romantic, prosecutors say.
After killing her, police say, Landeros fled to Mexico, where he stayed until his arrest in 2023.
"Person after person after person has told me that taking her class changed the course of their careers and turned them into accountants," her brother, Alan Marcum, said at the courthouse in Rockville, Maryland, Friday.
But it was a man who taught Marcum, prosecutors say, who took her life, killing her in her home on Massachusetts Avenue in Bethesda before staging the scene to look like a burglary.
"I think the jury came up with a perfect verdict," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said. "It is clear from the crime scene that these two individuals - where there had been this tumult over financial stuff - were sitting down drinking together before the murder began."
Police found two shot glasses in the home, where they also found Landeros' DNA, prosecutors say.
The jury was shown a photo of a screen torn off one of the windows at the back of the home, but it was not a burglary.
Marcum had become increasingly distraught over money being drained from financial accounts to which Landeros had access, prosecutors say.
"When he met Sue, he had found a mark," Assistant State's Attorney Debbie Feinstein said. "He had found someone who was vulnerable to his charm, and she wasn't the only one."
Landeros taught Marcum yoga and how to speak Spanish, prosecutors say. The two entered a financial partnership that turned sour.
Evidence presented at trial showed Marcum lost more than $300,000. Prosecutors believe that ultimately may have led to her death.
Marcum died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, the medical examiner ruled.
After an eight-day trial, a jury found Landeros guilty of second-degree murder. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 6.