Man pleads guilty to killing girlfriend

A Van Nuys man faces 40 years to life in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the 2006 strangulation of his girlfriend, authorities said.

Jonathon Arthur Hendler was on parole for theft when he killed Beverly Ann Kass-Lucitt, 38, sometime between March 30 and April 2, according to the district attorney’s office. Her body was found in the Sherman Way apartment they shared.

Hendler, also 38, was arrested shortly afterward on suspicion of attempted bank robbery. He had told three friends about the killing, and one of them, a rabbi, alerted police, prosecutors said.

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-- Paul Pringle