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Teen pleads guilty to Highlandtown murder

Posted at 5:19 PM, Dec 15, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-15 17:19:30-05

A 16-year-old boy charged as an adult in the murder of a Highlandtown woman pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Alonzo Gorham-Ramos faces a life sentence with all but 45 years suspended. He scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 26, 2016 for the murder of 51-year-old Kimberly Leto.

On Jan. 31, 2014, Leto's boyfriend found lying on the living room floor in a pool of blood inside her home in the 400 block of South Ellwood Avenue in Baltimore's Highlandtown neighborhood.

A large kitchen knife was found next to her body. She'd been stabbed 11 times.

RELATED: Police: Two teens killed 51-year-old woman

Leto's boyfriend told police he heard a male voice and came downstairs where he found her body, called 911 and started CPR.

Gorham-Ramos had broken into the home through a kitchen window in August 2013, according to a release from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office. On that day, Leto woke up and chased him out of the house.

Gorham-Ramos admitted to that burglary and said he and someone else broke into the home again on the day of the murder. Leto, who was asleep on the couch, woke up so a pillow was put over hear head and she was stabbed until she stopped fighting, according to the release.

See also: Woman, 51, found dead in her Highlandtown home

DNA showed the victim's blood on the pants of Gorham-Ramos, who was 14 at the time of the murder. The teen confessed after seeing photos of his bloody footprints, prosecutors said.

The teen said he and the other person broke into the house because they needed money and the person with him said there was a lot of cash in the house.

Surveillance video from a grocery store showed Gorham-Ramos and another person using a Coinstar machine and cashing coins taken from the home.