Topless dancer pleads guilty in cabbie’s killing

Tuesday, April 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A 24-year-old topless dancer has pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges in the slaying a year ago of a cab driver whose body was found in the trunk of a car at Sam's Town.

Heidi Hartkopf has agreed in the plea bargain to accept a life prison sentence with the possibility of parole, plus 12 years for the holdup. She will be eligible for parole after serving 13 years behind bars.

District Judge Nancy Becker set formal sentencing for May 13.

Until then, Hartkopf is being held in the Clark County Detention Center without bail on the charges that could have resulted in the death penalty had she gone to trial and been convicted.

The badly decomposed body of Alexandre Popov was discovered Aug. 30, 1994, in a cardboard box stuffed in the rear compartment of a hatchback car parked in the hotel-casino's parking garage.

His empty wallet was found in the front of the car.

Hartkopf was arrested in August 1995 at the Airport Inn at 5100 Paradise Road, where police believed the murder occurred.