Alberto Palmer told police he killed Brittany Clardy during postcoital "tussle"

Palmer (left) has been charged with murder for killing Clardy (right).

Earlier today, 23-year-old Alberto Palmer was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of Brittany Clardy. Police say Clardy, an 18-year-old St. Paul woman, was working as a prostitute at the time of her murder. She was found dead in a vehicle that had been towed to a Columbia Heights impound lot.

THE BACKSTORY: Brittany Clardy, woman found dead inside towed vehicle, was a prostitute, police say [UPDATE]

The impounded car had been towed from an apartment building off Kentucky Avenue in Brooklyn Park, and police used cell phone records to determine that Palmer -- who was wanted in Atlanta for kidnapping, false imprisonment, fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct, and first-degree assault -- had been in the building and at his brother's apartment around the time the car was impounded. A search of his brother's apartment found deep blood stains and a pair of pants later determined to be Clardy's.

Authorities tracked Palmer to a Woodbury home, where he was arrested. Palmer said Clardy came to the Brooklyn Park apartment after he responded to a sex solicitation ad she had placed online. Here's what he told authorities about the circumstances of Clardy's death, according to the Pioneer Press:

[After the two had sex, they], began to "tussle," [and] he choked her to unconsciousness and hit her in the head with a hammer multiple times.

Palmer said he then put Clardy in a car, covered her body with blankets, and left the car at a Brooklyn Park apartment complex, where it was found 10 days later...

Clardy's cause of death was determined to be multiple blows with foreign object to the back of the head.

The maximum penalty for second-degree murder in Minnesota is 40 years in prison.