NEWARK -- Pedro Lora-Pena admitted that he killed his girlfriend when she wouldn't stop texting another man during a car ride home from a haircut, prosecutors say.

The pair was driving home from the Bronx when Lora-Pena tried to take Diana Boggio's phone away from her, but she wouldn't give it up, Essex County Assistant Prosecutor Carlo Fioranelli said Lora-Pena told authorities.

Diana Boggio's Facebook profile picture. Boggio was found dead inside her car in Newark, authorities said. (Facebook)

So, Lora-Pena shot her three times, Fioranelli said the Belleville man admitted. Lora-Pena, 42, then led police officers to Boggio's car, where he had stuffed her body in the trunk, Fioranelli said.

Fioranelli recounted Lora-Pena's statement Tuesday at a detention hearing in Newark, where Superior Court Judge Martin Cronin declined to release Lora-Pena from jail.

Lora-Pena is accused of murder, moving or concealing human remains, and weapons offenses in the Jan. 31 discovery of Boggio's body in her Honda Accord on Verona Avenue in Newark.

Boggio, who prosecutors say had been dating Lora-Pena for a year, was reported missing to Belleville police Jan. 28 and authorities launched an investigation.

As Lora-Pena stood silently in court Tuesday, and a Spanish interpreter translated the proceedings for him, his lawyer argued the charges should be dismissed because Lora-Pena told authorities the killing had happened in the Bronx and not in New Jersey. Therefore, Essex County Public Defender Deirdre McMahon said, the New Jersey court system lacks jurisdiction in the case.

Cronin told her because Boggio's body was found in Newark, he would infer the killing happened in New Jersey and would allow the case to move forward.

Arguing that Lora-Pena, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, should stay detained, Fioranelli said he posed a flight risk. Lora-Pena has 11 aliases and four listed dates of birth, a prior felony conviction in Virginia and an open warrant for his arrest in Maryland, Fioranelli said. Details of the prior felony conviction were not immediately available.

Fioranelli said Lora-Pena also posed a danger to the public because he had told authorities he was trying to find the man Boggio, 42, had been texting in the car.

McMahon pushed for Lora-Pena to be put under home detention, saying he has a green card and has been in the United States since 1994.

Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati or on Facebook here. Find NJ.com on Facebook.