The man accused of killing a Binghamton University student from Westbury has been convicted overseas in her death, and while her mother says nothing will bring her daughter back, the family feels that justice has been served.
Orlando Tercero was found guilty Friday by a Nicaraguan judge of killing 22-year-old Haley Anderson. They had both been nursing students at Binghamton University when prosecutors say Tercero killed Anderson in March 2018.
"All she ever was to him was a friend, and she trusted him," says Haley's mother, Karen Anderson, of Westbury.
Authorities say Tercero strangled Hayley in his off-campus house. She was found in his bed.
Afterward, prosecutors say Tercero fled to Nicaragua, where he has dual citizenship.
Tercero was tried by a judge in the Central American country after a request to bring him back to the U.S. was rejected.
Haley's mother says her daughter never misled Tercero about their relationship and made it clear that she never wanted it to be serious. She says her daughter even offered to help him study and convinced him to stay at the university when he was struggling in the nursing program.
Anderson says she reminded Tercero of those details when she spoke to him during the trial, through a video link from a room in the district attorney's office in downtown Binghamton.
Anderson says now that the trial is over, her family, Haley's friends and loved ones can start trying to heal.
"It will never stop being the loss of a daughter, or a loss of a sister, or a loss of a best friend, and what comes along with that. But life is going on and we are trying to deal with it as best we can," Karen Anderson says.
An official with the prosecutor's office in Nicaragua says sentencing for Orlando Tercero will be held within days.