SALT LAKE CITY — family of the Utah scholar who was discovered strangled and burned just last year after a seek out her that captured the nation’s attention called the person whom pleaded accountable to her murder a “monster” Friday before he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as they confronted him.
Mackenzie Lueck’s daddy, Gregory Lueck, told Ayoola A. Ajayi which he had no compassion for him because Ajayi had showed no compassion for their child, and stated he hopes Ajayi spends the remainder of their life in jail searching over his neck in fear.
Ajayi has recognized he planned the loss of the 23-year-old Lueck, who he came across for a dating application and arranged to fulfill in a park. When they came back to his house, he bound and strangled her, then burned and hid her human body while police and family members looked for her, authorities state.
“I’m not yes you even have any such thing to look forward to when you look at the afterlife, if you truly believe in that,” Gregory Lueck stated. “My daughter Mackenzie Lueck had been a sweet, amazing lady that is young the planet in front of her. She had been a kindhearted person who cared about other people. Now, we will not need the chance to see her blossom in life.”
Her relative, Carly Stevens, stated through rips: “This is really a nightmare you can’t get up from. We will never ever be in a position to forgive just exactly exactly what occurred to her. We shall never ever forgive the monster whom took her life. Never ever during my life have actually we felt anger the real way i have the final 16 months. Not have we been so afraid for my entire life because i understand just how evil that is real in this globe.”
FILE – In this, file picture, Ayoola A. Ajayi seems in third District Court in Salt Lake City. Ajayi pleaded responsible within the death of a Utah scholar Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, significantly more than per year after her disappearance sparked a search that is large-scale ended because of the development of her charred stays in the yard. Ajayi is anticipated to be sentenced to life in jail minus the risk of parole within the loss of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret Information via AP, File)
Ajayi Pleaded Guilty Previously This thirty days to Aggravated Murder and Desecration of the Corpse
The Lueck household had not stated much publicly since their daughter’s charred remains were based in the summer time of 2019 in Ajayi’s yard in Salt Lake City. Ayaji later told police he buried the others of her human body in a superficial grave in a canyon almost 100 kilometers (161 kilometers) north, where she had been discovered together with her hands bound behind her.
Ajayi, 32, listened together with his head straight down as Lueck’s parents and cousins talked through the hearing in Salt Lake City, that was livestreamed for media to look at. When provided the opportunity to talk, he apologized to Lueck’s parents in a statement that is short.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lueck, I’m sorry for just what i did so. I deserve just just what I’m going to obtain,” Ajayi said. “I understand this won’t bring her straight back.”
Ajayi pleaded accountable previously this to aggravated murder and desecration of a corpse in an agreement with prosecutors that removed the possibility of the death penalty month. Prosecutors dropped costs of aggravated kidnapping and obstructing justice.
A indigenous of Nigeria, Ajayi held a green card that enables him to legitimately work and inhabit the U.S., prosecutors have stated. He had been information technology worker that has stints with high-profile organizations and had been quickly into the Army National Guard.
Authorities have not talked about a motive for the killing, but prosecutor Marc Mathis said during the hearing that proof shows that Ajayi wished to know very well what it felt prefer to destroy some body.
Ajayi Planned the Slaying prior to the fulfilling in the Park
“This ended up being murder for murder’s sake,” said Mathis, regarding the Salt Lake District Attorney’s workplace.
Lueck went missing in 2019, after returning from a trip home to El Segundo, California, for her grandmother’s funeral june. Lueck took a Lyft to meet up him in a park, prosecutors have stated. Her phone had been deterred a moment following the last text and never ever switched back on.
Ajayi planned the slaying prior to the conference during the park and deterred the movie in their home-security system before he left to generally meet her, Hamilton has stated. If they came back to their Salt Lake City house, Ajayi tied her up and started to choke her. She attempted to stop him, after which it he place a gear around her neck, pressed her onto her belly and strangled her, the lawyer stated.
Lueck’s mom, Diana Lueck, remembered her child as a sort, loving and caring young girl who was simply a proper “spitfire.”
Cousin Chloe Stevens said her fondest memories of her relative originate from summers if the musical organization of cousins would play within their grandmother’s yard pool in Ca. That’s where she past saw and hugged her cousin before she gone back to fitness singles reddit Utah and had been killed, Chloe Stevens stated as she cried.
“I replay those last moments together within my mind again and again, stricken with grief that I cannot somehow keep her with us only a little bit longer,” she stated. “The pain of Kenzi’s loss as well as the permanent break it has kept inside our family members is indescribable. It haunts me personally daily that I happened to be unable to protect her.”
