'Most Wanted' Fugitive Pleads Guilty to Murder

A man who spent 18 years on Pennsylvania’s Most Wanted list pleaded guilty on Friday to a 1994 murder in a South Bethlehem parking lot.

Francisco G. Miranda, 50, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, according to published reports.

Under the terms of a plea bargain, Miranda will serve the maximum sentence that would have been allowed at the time of the murder, according to The Morning Call.

Miranda eluded authorities for 18 years while he lived in the Dominican Republic but he didn’t flee the country on his own, the newspaper reported.

New Jersey officials unwittingly deported Miranda—just weeks after the Bethlehem homicide—after he was arrested on drug charges under an assumed name, according to The Express Times.

In court Friday, Miranda admitted to stabbing Jorge Velazquez in the heart during a fight in an Aaron Street parking lot on the morning of June 12, 1994.

A police investigation quickly determined that Miranda was their chief suspect.

Police say witnesses saw Miranda covered in blood following the fight. According to authorities, he also allegedly alluded to having been in a fight and made a "cutting motion" by his neck.

Then Miranda vanished.

A Northampton County judge issued a warrant for him on homicide and aggravated assault charges. There was also a federal warrant issued, and the FBI became involved in the search.

Police learned Miranda had gone to either Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic, but by 2000, the investigation had been added to their list of cold cases.

Eight years later, police learned Miranda had been spotted in the Dominican Republic, and the search focused there.

Miranda was taken into custody by Dominican police in November and extradited to Pennsylvania in February.