Ex-Virginia Tech student pleads no contest in girl’s killing
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. — After listening to days of damaging testimony from prosecution witnesses, a former Virginia Tech student pleaded no contest Friday to killing a 13-year-old girl he met through social media.
David Eisenhauer, 20, entered his plea to all three charges against him in the stabbing death of Nicole Lovell: first-degree murder, abduction and concealing a body.
The plea came on the fourth day of testimony at his trial. Prosecutors told jurors Eisenhauer, then 18, killed Lovell, a 7th-grader from Blacksburg, because he was afraid his relationship with the underage girl would become known.
A plea of no contest means a defendant acknowledges there’s enough evidence to convict him, but doesn’t admit he committed the crime. The plea has the same effect as a guilty plea. Sentencing is scheduled for May. The judge told Eisenhauer he faces up to life, plus 15 years.