KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Prosecutors have accused a man of beating and stabbing to death his 18-year-old wife -- the mother of his two children.

They charged Jesus Sanchez, 24, with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Maria Torres-Valle.

A police officer found Torres-Valle dead early Tuesday morning in a car that was parked and running at East 27th Street and Woodland Avenue.

Sanchez admitted that he waited for his wife with a baseball bat, struck her in the head until she was unconscious and placed her in the car.

He got a kitchen knife and then drove the vehicle to East 27th Street and Woodland Avenue, prosecutors said Sanchez told police.

When he noticed she was still breathing, Sanchez told police he stabbed her multiple times then got out of the vehicle and ran home, according to prosecutors.