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Van der Sloot attorney quits

From Mayra Cuevas, CNN
Newly released transcripts say Joran van der Sloot elbowed Stephany Flores Ramirez in the face before killing her.
Newly released transcripts say Joran van der Sloot elbowed Stephany Flores Ramirez in the face before killing her.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • NEW: Joran van der Sloot's attorney resigns
  • NEW: Van der Sloot being held in high-security area of prison
  • New transcripts detail graphic moments in murder case
  • Suspect tells why alleged murder took place

Lima, Peru (CNN) -- Joran van der Sloot's Peruvian attorney has resigned from defending the murder suspect, the attorney told Peru's Foreign Press Association on Monday.

Earlier, Maximo Altez Navarro told CNN that he didn't want to be van der Sloot's attorney anymore.

"This has created many problems for me," Altez said.

According to Peruvian prison authorities, Altez was the only person to have visited van der Sloot in prison.

The 22-year-old Dutch citizen is accused in the death of 21-year-old student Stephany Flores Ramirez last month.

On Monday, van der Sloot, who is in the Miguel Castro Castro prison in Lima, was awaiting a psychological evaluation, prison authorities said.

Video: Van der Sloot confession released
Video: Van der Sloot charged with murder
Video: Where's Holloway's body?
Timeline: Natalee Holloway case
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He is in a high-security area of the prison where only two of 10 cells are occupied, and he has no contact with inmates in the general prison population.

He is under guard 24 hours a day, authorities said.

The only other inmate in the area is alleged Colombian hit man Hugo Trujillo Ospina. The two have spent some time together in a common area where there is a television set and weights made of out of broomsticks and soda bottles, authorities said.

There is the possibility that van der Sloot will be integrated with other segments of the prison population.

According to transcripts of his confession, van der Sloot said he elbowed Flores in the face before strangling her and then suffocating her with his own shirt.

The transcripts -- provided to CNN by an anonymous police source -- give shocking details of the murder van der Sloot is accused of and also give the public its first glimpse of why van der Sloot says the alleged murder took place. The source has not been named because he was not authorized to pass along the material.

"There was blood everywhere," van der Sloot said in the transcripts. "What am I going to do now. I had blood on my shirt. There was also blood on the bed, so, I took my shirt and put it on her face, pressing hard, until I killed Stephany."

Peruvian authorities charged van der Sloot with murder last week. Van der Sloot has also been considered the main suspect in the well-publicized 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway in Aruba.

Van der Sloot told authorities he attacked Flores on May 30 after she read an e-mail on his computer connected with the Holloway case.

In the transcript, van der Sloot said that after Flores read the e-mail, she punched him in the face.

"At that moment impulsively, with my right elbow I hit her in the face exactly on top of the nose," van der Sloot said. "I think she started to faint. It affected me so that I grabbed her from the neck and strangled her for a minute."

Van der Sloot said he had a quick thought that he might try to hide the body but instead fled.

He was arrested in Chile on June 3 and was returned the next day to Peru. Along with killing Flores, who had a broken neck, he took money and bank cards from her wallet, police said.

Van der Sloot told police in Chile a different story of how Flores died when he was arrested there, according to transcripts. He blamed the death on robbers who had waited for him at his hotel in Peru.

"There was a man coming from the access door with a knife in his hand," van der Sloot said. "The man with the knife hit her in the face, making her bleed through the nose."

But Peru authorities said they had overwhelming evidence pointing to van der Sloot, and when he was transferred to Peru, van der Sloot confessed to the crime, police said.

Van der Sloot said he was in Peru for a poker tournament and had met Flores while he was gambling.

Police have said they think van der Sloot killed Flores to steal money she won from gambling.

Van der Sloot offered a different motive.

"After I responded with hitting her, I feared that she would go to the police and they would detain me for what was an impulsive act," van der Sloot said. "I think I wanted to kill her because I wasn't thinking."

Before he quit, Altez had planned to ask the judge in the case to strike down van der Sloot's confession because he was not properly represented when he was interrogated.

Peruvian police have defended the interrogation and said van der Sloot's confession was acquired legally.