A former small-town mayor in Nicaragua has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in the slaying of a reporter who was investigating an electoral dispute.
Eugenio Hernandez, who served as mayor of El Ayote from 1990 to 2000, was sentenced Friday night, two days after his conviction for premeditated murder in the killing of Maria Jose Bravo.
The 26-year-old reporter was killed with a single shot from a 38-caliber revolver on November 9. The local correspondent for the Managua-based newspaper La Prensa, she had been investigating polling place records for the municipal elections two days earlier in Juigalpa, 60 miles east of Managua.
Hernandez was convicted after a one-day trial that included testimony from 18 people. La Prensa's managing editor, Eduardo Enriquez, said Bravo received threats before she was killed.
