MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A plea deal for the killer of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling calls for no charges in the boy's death.
Danny Heinrich admitted abducting, sexually assaulting and shooting Jacob on Oct. 22, 1989, in a crime that horrified and mystified Minnesotans for more than a quarter-century.
His admission came in federal court in Minneapolis as he pleaded guilty to a child pornography charge.
Heinrich faces the statutory maximum of 20 years on the child pornography count, though Judge John Tunheim will decide his sentence. Heinrich could also be civilly committed to the state's sexual offender program after his prison sentence ends.
Heinrich led authorities to Jacob's body last week after initially denying involvement in his death.
The 53-year-old Andover man described donning a mask and confronting three children with a revolver near Jacob's central Minnesota home. He says he took Jacob, handcuffed him and assaulted him in a grove of trees.
Afterward, he shot Jacob and later buried him in a gravel pit, and reburied him a year later.
Heinrich says when he took Jacob, the boy asked, ''What did I do wrong?''
Heinrich led authorities to Jacob's remains last week.
He admitted abducting Jacob near the boy's home in the central Minnesota community of St. Joseph on Oct. 22, 1989.
Authorities named Heinrich as a person of interest last October when they announced the child pornography charges.