Norma Patricia Esparza is one of four suspects to face charges for the 1995 killing of Gonzalo Ramirez, a man she had accused of raping her in her dorm room back when she was attending Pomona College.



The 39-year-old is a psychology professor at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland. She was only arrested in late 2012 after re-entering the U.S. for an academic conference.

The prosecution said Esparza was at a bar with a group of friends which included her then boyfriend. She pointed out Ramirez in the crowd. She and three other suspects followed Ramirez when he left the bar in the early hours of the following morning. His body was later discovered hacked to death with a meat cleaver on the side of a road in Orange County.

What's particularly strange about this case is that Esparza had rejected a plea deal that would have handed her a three-year prison sentence, stating she could not accept as it would be 'a lie.' and 'The principle of what they're asking me is to plead guilty to something that they know I am not responsible for,' she said.

The wife and mother of four is now facing trial for one felony count of special circumstance murder, which if found guilt carries a life sentence without parole. Read the full details of this strange case over at Business Insider