PHILADELPHIA – A man charged with strangling his pregnant girlfriend was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on first-degree murder charges.
The victim, LaToyia Figueroa (search), 24, had been missing for more than a month when police arrested Stephen Poaches (search) as he allegedly tried to move her body.
On Wednesday, a judge ruled prosecutors had enough evidence to try Poaches on two counts of first-degree murder — one for Figueroa and one for her fetus.
Poaches allegedly strangled Figueroa on July 18, only hours after accompanying her on a visit to a doctor. Police said Poaches killed Figueroa, who was five-months pregnant, at the home he shared with another woman, then dumped her body amid dense brush near some railroad tracks in Chester, about 10 miles away.
Detectives, tipped off by an informant, followed him to her body Aug. 19. At the time of his arrest, Poaches was wearing a bulletproof vest and was carrying a handgun, police said.
Figueroa's father had mounted a high-profile missing persons campaign that raised questions about alleged racial bias in news coverage of missing women. Figueroa was black and Hispanic.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox