Edward de la Cruz, 17, has changed his plea from not guilty to no contest in connection with the brutal Sept. 6, 2006 attack on Maria Rivera, the manager of the Rainbo Bakery Store on Dona Ana Road, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

Rivera was repeatedly struck on the head with a hammer during the attack, putting her into a coma for five weeks and causing the removal of two-thirds of her brain, the Sun-News reported.

Prosecutor Jeanne Quintero told state District Judge Robert Robles that De La Cruz struck Rivera several times with the hammer and continued hitting her when she fell to the ground, the paper said.

Following the attack, De La Cruz was unable to get into the store's cash register, but took Rivera's purse and truck keys, later burning the purse at La Llorona Park and abandoning the truck on a Las Cruces street, according to the Sun-News.

It was nearly a year after the attack that investigators got a break in the case, learning that De La Cruz allegedly spoke of the attack while being held on an unrelated crime at the J. Paul Taylor Juvenile Justice Center, the paper said.

De La Cruz, who was 15 years old at the time of the attack, will face a hearing scheduled for early June on whether he is amenable for treatment as a juvenile, the Sun-News reported.

Robles will then decide whether De La Cruz should be committed to a juvenile facility until he is 21 or will be sentenced as an adult to up to 15 years in prison, the paper said. 

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