Melkamu Garuma pleaded guilty to criminal homicide for the September 2005 slaying of Estegnet A. Beyene, 21. Garuma also is charged with rape in connection to the killing, but he did not plead guilty to that.

Lancaster County Judge Joseph Madenspacher now must decide whether Garuma is guilty of first-, second- or third-degree murder.

After Garuma pleaded guilty, First Assistant District Attorney Heidi Eakin and defense attorney Patricia Spotts made opening statements in the bench trial.

Garuma was a jealous, controlling and violent companion to Beyene, Eakin said, and planned the murder after becoming convinced she was seeing another man.

“The defendant nearly decapitated this woman,” Eakin told Madenspacher. “He cut her ear to ear, slicing through the windpipe and arteries. The only thing that held her head on was the spinal cord.”

Spotts refuted the claim that Garuma raped or planned to kill Beyene, saying instead that he reacted with violence during a moment of frustration.

“This woman is the lottery to him,” Spotts said. “She represented all that he wanted. He was distraught at the thought that she was seeing other people behind his back.

“He was so enraged, he took out a knife and stabbed Estegnet. We are not disputing he killed her. We are disputing the circumstances. This was not something he planned.”

Spotts also said detectives coerced a confession from Garuma.

“The police put words in his mouth, and he agreed with what they had to say,” Spotts said. “The police did not speak his language, and he was trying as hard as possible to cooperate.”

Garuma used an Ethiopian translator Tuesday.

Several witnesses, who also are Ethiopian immigrants, are scheduled to testify when the trial resumes Monday. They also will use translators.

Eakin and Lancaster city police Detective Robert Deeter showed Madenspacher photographs of witnesses, the crime scene, the autopsy, a confession Garuma wrote and the East Hempfield Township apartment where Beyene lived.

Eakin also showed Madenspacher the blood-stained knife Garuma used on Beyene.

“A latent-print examiner found the defendant held the knife like you would to cut a steak,” Eakin said. “There is a latent palm print on the knife.”

Investigators also found sperm from Garuma on Beyene’s body. He also strangled Beyene, Eakin said.

“He wanted to make her pay for this,” Eakin said. “And pay she did.”

Garuma emigrated to Lancaster from Ethiopia in 2002, Beyene in 2005. The two met here.

They started dating in early 2005 and lived together for about five months, police said, until Beyene moved out of their 523 E. King St. apartment.

On Sept. 22, 2005, Garuma left work about 8 p.m. and drove to the East Hempfield Township warehouse where Beyene worked, police said.

A security guard told Garuma that Beyene was not there, so he drove to her apartment. Garuma looked through a glass door and saw Beyene kissing another man, according to the confession.

Later that night, Garuma picked Beyene up at her apartment and took her to his East King Street apartment.

The two began arguing, and Garuma struck Beyene across the face, police said. He grabbed a large knife from the kitchen, pinned her on the couch and plunged the blade into her neck.

Garuma covered her with a blanket and three sofa cushions and for the next 30 minutes wrote four pages about the slaying and left them on a bed, police said.

Garuma then drove to a friend’s house at 442 S. Queen St. and told him “his girlfriend had passed and that he wanted to pass, too,” police said.

The friend, Ermias Amenti, called police, who found Garuma in Amenti’s apartment, slumped over in a chair.

Garuma told police what had happened. He was taken into custody and later charged with the killing.