CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) _ A 23-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to first degree murder in the strangulation of a Virginia Tech student. Jessica Michelle Ewing entered the plea Thursday in the slaying of Samanta Shrestha. The plea was entered in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Christiansburg. Shrestha’s body was found on Feb. 10, 2014, wrapped in a sleeping bag in the back of her car. She was a 21-year-old biological sciences major from Vienna, Virginia. Besides the murder charge, Ewing also admitted to transporting or concealing a dead body. She could be sentenced to 20 years to life at her April sentencing on the murder conviction. A jury trial on the charges was set to begin on Tuesday.
