A 38-year-old homeless man pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of another transient man at a Bellevue Burger King last August.

Steven O. Padilla approached a 65-year-old Jose L. Arias while he was sleeping inside the Burger King on Northeast 24th Street and stabbed him multiple times in the upper torso around 3:15 p.m. Aug. 17. Witnesses said Padilla exited the fast-food restaurant restroom and removed a knife from his jacket pocket, reaching over a partition to stab Arias. The victim staggered out of the restaurant and collapsed in the parking lot, where he was declared dead at the scene.

Padilla fled the scene, but was arrested 1 1/2 miles away. An Everett Police K-9 unit led police to an office complex on the 14300 block of Northeast 24th Street, where a large, fixed-blade knife believed to have been the murder weapon was recovered.

According to a Bellevue Police news release, Padilla pleaded guilty Tuesday to the second-degree murder charge — with a deadly weapon enhancement — and faces 158-258 months in prison when sentenced March 31 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle.