The man convicted of second-degree murder of an American University professor in 2010 was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison, minus the 1,000 days he already has spent in prison.
Jorge Rueda Landeros, 56, of Juarez, Mexico, was sentenced one day after what would have been Sue Ann Marcum‘s 68th birthday. The Bethesda resident was bludgeoned and strangled to death in her own home. She was found at the foot of a stairwell on Oct. 25, 2010.
DNA evidence was taken from Marcum, in addition to shot glasses from her apartment “as well as a bottle that was by her body that may have been used” in the murder, said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy during a post-sentencing press conference.
Marcum, a professor in AU’s business school, and Landeros had a financial and personal relationship. He was her Spanish and yoga teacher, McCarthy said. The two made investments using Marcum’s money, and over the course of approximately two years, Marcum lost $312,000 while Landeros gained a total of $252,000 from her.
Because Landeros frequently traveled between Mexico and the United States, it took a while for police to arrest him, McCarthy said. Once a cheek swab of his DNA was taken at a border crossing, Landeros moved to another town in Mexico and changed his identity.
Marcum “was a beloved professor,” McCarthy said.
“What we can’t ever know is the lives she might have touched, the student’s she might have inspired to go into accounting or to go into other fields with passion,” Marcum’s brother Alan Marcum said. “What made my sister a great teacher is that she cared about the people who came to learn from her far more than she cared about accounting,” Alan Marcum said. “That is the mark of a great teacher. That was my sister.”
He recalled fondly about his sister’s vegetable garden. He said one of the last photo’s he has of her holding one of her eggplants.
“She is now doing God’s work, and we now can do Sue’s work on this earth,” said Larry Mach, Marcum’s friend.
Landeros received a sentence that was five years more than the Maryland guidelines of 20 years.
Detectives believed that Landeros had staged a burglary at Marcum’s residence. Her car was missing but later recovered.
During both his nine-day trial and Tuesday’s sentencing, Landeros did not testify.
He was arrested in December of 2022 in a joint operation involving the Department of Justice, Legat, Mexico Task Force (Criminal Investigative Agency (AIC) and Mexico’s Jalisco State Police. The FBI – Baltimore Field Office coordinated with Mexican authorities to extradite him.
