Ziya T. escorted by police on Monday. (AP)
A Turkish man confessed on Monday to the January murder of a Staten Island woman who had been vacationing in Istanbul, saying he beat Sarai Sierra to death after she resisted his kiss. The suspect, known only as Ziya T., said he tried to kiss Sierra while she was taking photographs near abandoned railroad tracks, and she tried to fend him off with her cellphone. In a rage, Ziya T. said he then “hit her as hard as I could,” which sent her falling down an embankment—and he followed her and attempted to kiss her again. She again tried to fight him off, but the two got in a 30-minute struggle that ended when Ziya T. left her “croaking” to death, he said. Ziya T. later fled into Syria and joined the rebel fighters, only to be injured and then turn himself in to Turkish police.