Ex-Boyfriend Pleads Guilty To The 2020 Murder Of An East Haven Mother

NEW HAVEN, CT —More than three years after his arrest by East Haven police on the charge of murder, Jonnathan X. Jara-Aucapina, 30, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Courtroom 6 of New Haven Superior Court to murder in the strangulation death of Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca, his then-girlfriend and the mother of his child.

The then-couple and their young daughter lived in East Haven.

Jara-Aucapina is set to be sentenced April 2 and faces decades in prison.

In the hallway outside the courtroom where just moments before he pleaded guilty, Aleman-Popoca's family gathered with attorneys, victim advocate and investigators from East Haven police and the State's Attorney's office.

"We were honored to stand with Lizzbeth's family and hope today's proceedings bring some sense of closure and healing," East Haven police Capt. Joseph M. Murgo said.

Aleman-Popoca's sister Yaneth and her father Albino Aleman thanked investigators and advocates as they listened to details on what to expect at sentencing.

"I just want to thank everyone. I'm just very thankful for the support. Thank you everyone," her sister said. "It's been three years, it's been so long. But thank you."

East Haven Police Department Chief Edward Lennon said his team was "Glad to see some closure for the family."

"As much as the outcome is not what they hoped for — they wanted their daughter back — at least they have some closure," he said.

Aleman-Popoca, who had been missing for weeks from her East Haven home since July 2020, was found buried in a shallow grave dug behind the Branford restaurant where Jara-Aucapina worked.

After months of investigation, Jara-Aucapina, then-27, was in December 2020 charged with murder and has been held on a $2 million bond since.

Once the missing mother's body was found by investigators, it would take months before the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in October ruled her death "homicidal asphyxia:" she was strangled to death.

The day of his arrest, Aleman-Popoca's father Albino Aleman, said his daughter's killing "destroyed my family."

In Spanish, he said that he and his family have been seeking "truth and justice" and thanked East Haven police for their months-long efforts to see Jara-Aucapina arrested.

The young mother had been missing for days before Jara-Aucapina reported her disappearance to police. She was last seen June 30, 2020, but was not reported missing until July 3. In July, police said that Jara-Aucapina claimed he was phoned by his daughter the morning of July 1 to say she'd awoken and her mother was not there, but said her "personal belongs" were. Two days later, he told police she was missing. The couple were not legally married, but he is the father to her daughter.

Aleman-Popoca's sister Yaneth told Patch that her sister, "Would never leave her baby. She would never leave her." The day after her body was found, more dumped than buried, in a very shallow 'grave' behind a cluster of large garbage bins and a dumpster, family and friends gathered in her father's New Haven home. In his garage-turned-chapel, with an altar adorned with flowers and photographs of the slain young mom, dozens gathered to pray.

At the time, Yaneth told Patch then that, all the family wanted was for there to be justice for their daughter and sister.

Yaneth said her sister was planning to separate from her longtime boyfriend and had been looking at an apartment in New Haven in the days before she went missing. the family said Jara-Aucapina "told us many lies."

In a statement emailed to Patch, East Haven police said Jara-Aucapina "concocted a story that Lizzbeth had run off, when he knew that she was already dead. He then used this story to lie to her family, her loved ones, and then eventually law enforcement when her family forced him to report her missing." And that after the initial missing person’s report, Jara-Aucapina "continued to lie to investigators, and also tried to conceal where he had buried her."

With Body In Car Trunk, He Bought A Shovel To Dig Grave

The voluminous charging documents lay out the disturbing case against Jara-Aucapina. Read that story here. Police said that after strangling her to death, he then went to work and, later on, hid the body in the trunk of her car, bought a shovel and hoe at a Home Depot and buried her body behind the restaurant dumpster. Those details are contained in an East Haven Police Department arrest warrant obtained by Patch through the Freedom of Information Act.

The arrest warrant suggests that Jara-Aucapina struck and then strangled to death his partner of a decade in the nighttime hours between June 30 and July 1, while their child slept in the East Haven apartment the couple shared. Investigators dug up her body two weeks later.

Here is the full arrest warrant:

Her life wasn't easy

“Lizzbeth's life wasn't easy,” her family said. “At 7 she had to take care of her 4-year-old sister. She became a mother to her. Her sister was all he had. She came to America at the age of 15 and started working immediately. Her life wasn't easy at first. At 19, she gave birth to her daughter Astrid. Her life took a different turn, and she saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Her daughter became her everything. She knew all her hard work had a meaning. Her mission was to give her daughter everything she didn't have.”

Read her obituary here

“She loved to draw and was pretty good at it. Weeks before her death, she began drawing again after a long time. She wanted to make designs for phones, cars, shirts and other accessories. She was motivated and ready to start a new chapter in life with her little daughter.”