Edgar Navarro pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and murdering a 28-year-old St. George man in 2007.

Edgar Navarro pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and murdering a 28-year-old St. George man in 2007. The plea deal scrapped a trial that was set to start Monday.
Navarro, 26, will be sentenced Nov. 18 in St. George's 5th District Court.
Navarro, who had faced a possible life sentence if convicted of first-degree murder, told 5th District Judge Eric Ludlow he was pleading to the second-degree felonies to get lesser consecutive prison sentences of one-to-15 years.
Navarro's Salt Lake City attorney, Susanne Gustin, said the kidnapping charge was put into the plea deal, because prosecutors would not allow her client to plead guilty to a lone second-degree felony.
"He basically decided to not contest or see the evidence against him," Gustin said. "He thought it was in his best interest not to go to trial on this."
Navarro's deal comes more than 18 months after Mark Batin's body was found Jan. 13, 2007, lying off Old Highway 91 in Washington County near the Arizona state line with one gunshot wound to the head.
Navarro was arrested in February 2007 and has remained in Purgatory Correctional Facility on $500,000 bail.
Washington County Prosecutor Brian Filter said the victim's family agreed to the plea deal, but would have preferred aFilter said prosecutors agreed to the deal after weighing the case against Navarro.
As for motive, Filter said Friday it is unclear exactly why Navarro shot Batin, claiming his office heard multiple stories about the incident but would not elaborate.