VALPARAISO | Jesus Baca Sanchez described for the court Thursday how he helped kill Ingrid VanEck by striking the 45-year-old Portage woman in the head with a socket wrench.

Sanchez pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit murder in return for prosecutors dropping charges of murder and assisting a criminal.

Prosecutors also agreed to a 40-year sentence. Sanchez was facing up to 50 years on the conspiracy charge alone.

The 48-year-old New Mexico resident, who is in custody at the county jail, appeared in court Thursday without an attorney.

He confirmed for Porter County Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford that it was his choice to neither hire an attorney nor accept the services of a public defender.

Bradford took the proposed plea agreement under consideration and ordered a pre-sentence report on Sanchez's background. The judge will decide Dec. 15 whether to accept the agreement and carry out sentencing.

Sanchez is charged in the April 23, 2005, murder along with Monica Louise Hicks.

Sanchez and Hicks, who were roommates of VanEck when she was murdered, were charged Jan. 16 after a lengthy investigation. They are accused of killing her with repeated hammer blows to the head because she was planning to sell her boyfriend's car to bond him out of jail.

Police said Hicks thought the car should go to her son, who was fathered by VanEck's boyfriend.

Both are accused of dumping VanEck's body into Deep River in Lake Station.

Hicks, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and assisting a criminal, is scheduled to go to trial Dec. 1 before Bradford.