Joran van der Sloot expected to plead guilty in Natalee Holloway extortion case

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Court records filed Friday indicate Joran van der Sloot, the chief suspect in Natalee Holloway’s 2005 disappearance, intends to plead guilty in a federal case accusing him of trying to extort money from the missing teen’s mother.

A federal judge set an Oct. 18 plea and sentencing hearing for van der Sloot in Birmingham, Alabama. He had previously entered a plea of not guilty in the case.

Emails sent to van der Sloot's attorney and a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors were not immediately returned Friday evening

Van der Sloot was extradited to Alabama from Peru, where he’s serving a 28-year sentence after confessing to killing a Peruvian woman in 2010.