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The 18-year-old illegal immigrant from Honduras charged with killing a beloved waiter in Montgomery Village pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Monday during a hearing marked at times by his apparent confusion and reluctance to agree to the plea.

Manuel Antonio Barahona of Gaithersburg, who has a second-grade education, told the judge through a translator that he did not understand the proceedings of the plea hearing and that he needed more time to speak to his lawyer.

He faces up to 30 years in prison for the June 5 stabbing death of Longyuan "Mooney" Wang, 24, who was walking home after working the dinner shift at the Red Robin restaurant in Lakeforest mall.

Barahona confessed to the killing less than a week later, according to prosecutors. He was charged with first-degree murder and three other related charges.

Police have said it was a robbery gone awry and that Barahona has ties to the MS-13 gang.

After Barahona told Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Louise G. Scrivener that he needed more time with this lawyer, public defender Samuel Delgado talked privately with his client for nearly 15 minutes. At one point Delgado told the judge that they were not making progress. She offered to recess the hearing or reschedule. Delgado asked for a few more minutes.

When the hearing resumed and Scrivener addressed Barahona again, he said he wanted to move forward with the guilty plea.

Wang's uncle, who met with an assistant state's attorney two weeks ago, said he was told prosecutors agreed to a plea on second-degree murder instead of going to trial on the first-degree charge because they were worried they would lose.

"They said there was some legal issue. The translator had said something that was not good for the case," Steven Wu said in an interview Monday. "… [H]e said he'd lose because of some legal issue. I think that yeah, instead of losing, it's better for [Barahona] to get something." Wang, who came to the United States from China as an exchange student, had lived with Wu for five years.

Seth Zucker, spokesman for the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office, declined to comment on the case's specifics while sentencing is still pending.

"We believe this is an appropriate resolution of the case. We're pleased the defendant admitted his responsibility and pled guilty to murder," he said Tuesday. "There will be finality in the sentence; the defendant has waived his right to a three-judge [review] panel and now faces a long term in prison."

The case against Barahona starts with eyewitness information from the crime scene, in front of dozens of homes along Fifeshire Court and Fifeshire Drive, near Lost Knife Road, according to Assistant State's Attorney Jeffrey Wennar, who spoke at Monday's hearing.

Hearing a cry for help that night, a resident looked out the window and saw two people fleeing the area on foot, one of them wearing white tank top, he said. A "short time later," Wennar said, the man in the tank top returned and "began to rifle through the property that had dropped at the scene."

"[The] suspect made a comment to the witness and ran from the scene," Wennar said.

Five days later, Wennar said county detectives interviewed "a person" who named Barahona as the killer.

"This witness was able to provide information given by Barahona regarding the homicide that would only be known to someone who was in fact present at the crime," he said. "The information provided by this witness was corroborated and credible."

Barahona was arrested the next day, June 11, on an outstanding warrant for an April drug possession charge. In the subsequent interview with detectives, he "admitted that he stabbed Wang to death," Wennar said, and said he had been wearing a white tank top that night.

Wang's death rocked friends, coworkers and customers at Red Robin, drawing more than 60 people to an impromptu vigil at the scene of the stabbing and more than 200 mourners to a memorial two weeks after his death.

Wang had been taking classes at Montgomery College and longed for a career in photography or fashion, said Wu.

An only child, Wang had not seen his parents in the six years since he left home; his parents had been planning to visit. Instead, Wu is leaving soon for China to comfort Wang's mother.

"My sister is in a terrible situation," Wu said. "… They don't want anyone to talk about it; they just don't want to feel like their son is still alive."

Wu still gets phone calls of support and condolence and he stops by Red Robin sometimes to say hello.

Wang's former co-workers and customers will not soon forget their outgoing, irrepressible friend, said manager Mark Young, who reminisced just last week with one of Wang's many regulars.

"He was always willing to go out of his way to help," Young said. "He never had anything bad to say about anybody."

A photo of Wang from a company party last summer hangs on the information board in the back of the restaurant.

"We see it every day; we always talk about him," Young said.

At the time of the killing, Barahona had been living in Gaithersburg at a friend's house for three months and did not have a job, according to court records.

He will be deported to Honduras after he serves his prison term, officials have said. His sentencing is set for March 2.