Jorge Rueda Landeros was found guilty Thursday for the murder of American University accounting professor Sue Marcum in 2010.
Montgomery County prosecutors said a jury returned the guilty verdict after an eight-day trial.
Rueda Landeros, now 55, was Marcum’s Spanish and yoga teacher. It’s unclear to this day if the two were in a romantic relationship, though they did share a joint investment account. Rueda Landeros was also the sole beneficiary of a $500,000 life insurance policy that Marcum had taken out.
“They made investments using Marcum’s funds and over the course of approximately two years, Marcum lost $312,000 while Rueda Landeros gained a total of $252,000 from her,” the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Marcum, 52, was found dead in her Bethesda home on Oct. 25, 2010.
Prosecutors said Rueda Landeros attacked Marcum after a confrontation, then staged the scene to look like a burglary. The defense argued the crime was a botched burglary.
Investigators ruled Marcum’s cause of death to be blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
After she was found inside her home, Rueda Landeros fled the country to Mexico, where he holds dual citizenship. He worked in Guadalajara as a yoga teacher and changed his name to Leon Ferrara.
He was arrested and extradited back to the U.S. in December 2022.
After spending 12 years on the run and on the FBI’s “Most Wanted List,” Rueda Landeros maintained his innocence during his first appearances in court. However, investigators were able to link him to the murder through a DNA match.
Before opening statements, Circuit Court Judge Rachel McGuckian ruled jurors could not be told that between 2010, when prosecutors got an arrest warrant charging Rueda Landeros with first-degree murder, and 2022, when a tip led to his arrest in Juarez, Mexico, that he was on the FBI’s “Most Wanted List.”
Montgomery County prosecutors said Rueda Landeros used and manipulated Marcum for her money, and when it dried up, he killed her.
Rueda Landeros faces up to 30 years in prison for the second-degree murder charge. He’s scheduled to return to court for sentencing Feb. 6.
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