Altersberger Pleads Guilty To Trooper Sottile Murder

The man charged with killing Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Nicholas Sottile pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree murder, three days before jury selection was to begin in his trial.

Attorneys for Joshua Lee Altersberger, 21, alerted prosecutors at noon Friday that their client intended to plead guilty, according to Assistant State Attorney Steve Houchin. The hearing was held around 3:30 p.m., at the Polk County Courthouse in Bartow before Judge Michael J. Hunter.

"He (Altersberger) made a short statement where he said, 'I'm doing it because I wanted to take responsibility and man up to what I did,'" Houchin said. "I think we had such a strong case that he did not want to go through the trial."

Altersberger shot and killed Sottile, a 24-year FHP veteran during a Jan. 12, 2007 traffic stop. A passenger, Quintin Jerome Kinder, of Bainbridge, Ga., then fled into a nearby orange grove after the shooting.

The state had filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Altersberger. A jury will still be picked on March 23 in order to hear some testimony about what happened on Jan. 12, 2007 and to decide if the sentence should be life in prison or death.

Testimony will not begin until March 30.

Jimmy Sottile, Nick Sottile's brother, received a phone call about the plea shortly before 5 p.m., Friday. He couldn't understand why Altersberger waited more than two years to admit what he did, thereby causing the victim's family to endure a long ordeal as the case moved through the legal system.

"What changed from two years ago?" Sottile asked. "He waits two years and on Friday the 13th he tells us he's going to plead guilty."