An illegal imigrant has pleaded guilty to killing a man who was found dead along a gravel road in western Iowa last year.  

Twenty-one-year-old Luis Angel Trujillo-Mendez pleaded guilty to second degree murder at the Crawford County Courthouse in Denison this afternoon.  Trujillo-Mendez will have to spend a minimum of 35 years in prison before he could be paroled. He faces deportation once his prison term has been completed.

Trujillo-Mendez has been ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to the family of Lorenzo Nambo-Garcia.  Garcia, who was from Denison, was 27 years old when he was shot to death. His body was found in a ditch near Dow City on February 24, 2009. 

Authorities who searched Trujillo-Mendez’s home found the victim’s wallet, along with a gun and bullets.

(Reporting by Micheal Earl, KDSN, Denison)