Jennifer Quijano pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and a string of related charges in the Sam Nordquist murder case, becoming the third defendant to admit guilt in a killing prosecutors said followed weeks of torture. She entered guilty pleas to all charges against her, including kidnapping, conspiracy, aggravated sexual abuse, concealment of a human corpse and child endangerment.
The plea matters now because the case is still moving through a crowded courtroom process. Two other defendants, Precious Arzuaga and Emily Motyka, had already pleaded guilty, while four others are still awaiting separate trials. For Sam Nordquist’s family, the latest admission does not bring the case to an end, but it does add another person who has acknowledged taking part in what authorities have called a brutal abuse campaign.
Nordquist was 24 and a transgender man from Oakdale, Minnesota, who traveled to the Finger Lakes region in September 2024 and stayed at Patty’s Lodge in Hopewell. Ontario County District Attorney Jason MacBride said the torture ran from Jan. 1 to Feb. 2, 2025, and that Nordquist’s body was later found in a Yates County field on Feb. 13, 2025. In court, Quijano admitted that beating, kicking and sexually assaulting him caused his death, and that the abuse was done for the gratification of herself and others. She also admitted helping conceal his body after he died.
The plea hearing also laid bare the split between the defense and prosecutors over how to view Quijano’s role. Defense attorney Neil Gunther said she was remorseful from the beginning and had gone to police early to describe her involvement, while prosecutors described her admitted violence as the conduct that caused Nordquist’s death. That divide matters because it goes to whether the plea reads as accountability or as the legal cleanup of a case already under pressure from larger investigations.
James Nobles, one of the attorneys involved in the case, said guilty pleas can create momentum, and he also pointed to pressure from the federal investigation. Gunther said that investigation carries potential death-penalty exposure, a consequence that can raise the stakes even in a case already packed with state charges. Quijano is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 8, leaving the next question not whether she admitted her role, but what punishment the court will impose.
Kayla Nordquist was among the family members in the courtroom Wednesday, and she said she kept thinking about Sam crying, screaming and begging for help. She said there is no amount of justice that can bring him back. For the family, the guilty plea adds another official acknowledgment of what happened to him, but it does not answer the deeper question of how a 24-year-old man ended up dead after weeks of torture.
