Yoga Teacher Accused of Killing Professor Girlfriend After Investment Dispute, Fleeing Country
BETHESDA MARYLAND, A man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of a college professor more than 15 years after the killing, following a lengthy investigation that tracked him after he fled the country and assumed a new identity.
According to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, 56-year-old Jorge Rueda Landeros was sentenced Tuesday after a jury convicted him in October of second-degree murder in the death of 52-year-old Sue Ann Marcum.
Authorities said Marcum, a professor at American University, had developed a personal relationship with Landeros, who had been her Spanish teacher and yoga instructor. The two also entered into an investment arrangement that later became a source of tension.
Investigators determined that Marcum had given Landeros significant amounts of money tied to the investment. Officials said she eventually became concerned about the situation and questioned him about the funds.
On October 25, 2010, Marcum was found dead inside her home on Massachusetts Avenue in Bethesda. Investigators said she had suffered fatal injuries and initially the scene appeared to be a burglary. However, detectives later determined the break-in had been staged and that the victim likely knew the person responsible.
DNA recovered at the scene matched Landeros after investigators compared the evidence with a sample previously obtained by border authorities during one of his crossings between the United States and Mexico.
Police obtained an arrest warrant in 2011, but by that time Landeros had already left the country and was living in Mexico under a different identity.
Authorities eventually located him more than a decade later, arrested him, and returned him to Maryland to face charges.
After a nine-day trial, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder.
Family members of the victim expressed gratitude to investigators and prosecutors for their work in bringing the case to court.
Marcum was the director of the master’s in accounting program at American University and taught both undergraduate and graduate courses. Colleagues and friends described her as a respected educator whose loss deeply affected the academic community.
