Son of federal judge in Puerto Rico pleads guilty to killing wife after winning new trial

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The son of a federal judge who was convicted of killing his wife more than a decade ago has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a retrial. The plea came as part of a deal reached Thursday with Puerto Rican prosecutors. Pablo Casellas had won a new trial after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that criminal cases require unanimous verdicts. At the time, suspects in Puerto Rico could be convicted by a minimum of nine jurors. Casellas had been found guilty in an 11-1 verdict. Casellas was convicted in 2014 on first-degree murder and other charges and sentenced to 109 years in prison for the 2012 fatal shooting of his wife in one of Puerto Rico’s most high profile cases.