Third defendant pleads guilty in Sam Nordquist homicide case

Jennifer Quijano pleaded guilty in Ontario County Court on July 15, 2026, becoming the third defendant to admit guilt in the Sam Nordquist homicide case. Before Judge Kristina Karle, Quijano changed her plea and admitted guilt to every count against her in a prosecution that has already moved through multiple plea deals.

Quijano’s plea covered first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree conspiracy, first-degree aggravated sexual abuse, concealment of a human corpse, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Local reporting said she could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set for September 8, 2026.

The plea matters because it adds another layer of resolution to a case prosecutors have already built through admissions, not trial. Precious Arzuaga pleaded guilty to all charges on July 11, 2026, and another defendant changed a not-guilty plea earlier in 2026. With Quijano now acknowledging her role, the case is increasingly centered on sentencing and on how the court will assign punishment across a group prosecution that once appeared headed for a fuller trial fight.

Nordquist, a 24-year-old transgender man from Minnesota, was reported missing on February 9, 2025, after his family requested a welfare check. New York State Police said he had last been in contact with family at the end of January, and investigators later said the case became a homicide investigation on February 14, 2025. His remains were found in a Yates County field on February 13, 2025.

Authorities said Nordquist was subjected to repeated violence and torture from early January through February 2025, and prosecutors said his body was moved in an attempt to conceal the crime. An Ontario County grand jury later upgraded the charges against all seven defendants to first-degree murder in March 2025. State police said they found no evidence the killing was a hate crime.

Quijano’s plea leaves sentencing as the next courtroom milestone in a case that has been defined by the length of the abuse, the number of defendants, and the steady sequence of guilty pleas. Family members of Nordquist are expected to address the court at sentencing, bringing the prosecution’s focus back to the loss that began with a missing-person report and ended in a homicide case that has never stopped widening.