Joran van der Sloot faces possible 30-year sentence after guilty plea

(CBS/AP) LIMA, Peru - Joran van der Sloot faces a potential 30-year sentence after pleading guilty today to the murder in 2010 of a Peruvian woman he had met at a casino in Lima.

Pictures: Joran van der Sloot, Natalee Holloway and Stephany Flores

Van der Sloot will be sentenced on Friday for the murder that took place exactly five years, to the day, after the disappearance of American teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

Van der Sloot remains the main suspect in that case.

In court today in Peru, he said he is "truly sorry" for killing Stephany Flores. He said he had "wanted from the first moment to confess sincerely" to the killing. His lawyer told the court that van der Sloot killed Flores as a result of "extreme psychological trauma" he had suffered from the fallout over the Holloway case.

Although van der Sloot faces up to 30 years in prison, his guilty plea was aimed at winning a lighter sentence. The defense had claimed the killing was manslaughter, which carries a minimum sentence of five years.

In a confession, he had said he killed her in a fit of rage after she discovered information on his laptop that he had been linked to the Holloway disappearance.

But prosecutors said he killed her to rob her after learning she had won money at the casino where they met.

Complete coverage of Joran van der Sloot on Crimesider