SALT LAKE CITY — family unit members of a Utah university student who was simply discovered strangled and burned a year ago following a look for her that grabbed the nation’s attention called the person whom pleaded bad 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 an app that is dating arranged to fulfill in a park. Once they came back to their house, he bound and strangled her, then burned and hid her human body while police and nearest and dearest sought out her, authorities state.
“I’m maybe maybe maybe not yes you even have anything to enjoy within the afterlife, if you truly believe in that,” Gregory Lueck said. “My child Mackenzie Lueck ended up being a sweet, amazing lady that is young the entire world in front of her. She was a kindhearted individual that 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 a nightmare you can’t get up from. We will never ever be in a position to forgive just exactly what occurred to her. I shall never ever forgive the monster whom took her life. Never in my own life have we felt anger the means I have actually the very last 16 months. Not have we been therefore 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 accountable within the loss of a Utah university student Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, significantly more than per year after her disappearance sparked a search that is large-scale ended with all the finding of her charred stays in the garden. Ajayi is anticipated to be sentenced to life in jail with no likelihood of parole when you look at 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 family members had not stated much publicly since their daughter’s charred stays were based in the summer time of 2019 in Ajayi’s garden in Salt Lake City. Ayaji later told police he buried the remainder of her human body in a superficial grave in a canyon almost 100 kilometers (161 kilometers) north, where she had been discovered along with her hands bound behind her.
Ajayi, 32, listened along with his head down as Lueck’s parents and cousins talked through the hearing in Salt Lake City, that has been livestreamed for news to look at. Whenever provided to be able to talk, he apologized to Lueck’s moms and dads in a quick statement.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lueck, I’m sorry for just what I did. We deserve just exactly what I’m going to have,” Ajayi stated. “I’m sure this won’t bring her straight straight back.”
Ajayi pleaded responsible early in the day this to aggravated murder and desecration of a corpse in an agreement with prosecutors that removed the possibility of the death penalty month. Prosecutors international cupid dropped fees of aggravated kidnapping and obstructing justice.
A indigenous of Nigeria, Ajayi held a green card that enables him to legally work and reside in the U.S., prosecutors have stated. He had been a given I . t worker who had stints with high-profile organizations and had been briefly within the Army National Guard.
Authorities have not talked about a motive for the killing, but prosecutor Marc Mathis stated in the hearing that proof implies that Ajayi wished to understand what it felt prefer to destroy some body.
Ajayi Planned the Slaying prior to the fulfilling during the Park
“This ended up being murder for murder’s sake,” said Mathis, for the Salt Lake District Attorney’s Office.
Lueck went missing in June 2019, after coming back from a visit home to El Segundo, Ca, on her grandmother’s funeral. Lueck took a Lyft to satisfy him in a park, prosecutors have stated. Her phone had been switched off one minute following the text that is last never ever switched back on.
Ajayi planned the slaying prior to the conference during the park and switched off the video clip in their home-security system before he left to meet up her, Hamilton has stated. Once they gone back to their Salt Lake City house, Ajayi tied her up and started to choke her. She attempted to stop him, and after that a belt was put by him around her throat, forced 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 real “spitfire.”
Cousin Chloe Stevens said her fondest memories of her relative result from summers if the musical organization of cousins would play within their grandmother’s garden pool in Ca. That’s where she last saw and hugged her cousin as she cried before she returned to Utah and was killed, Chloe Stevens said.
“I replay those last moments together during my mind over and over repeatedly, stricken with grief that we cannot somehow keep her with us a little bit longer,” she stated. “The discomfort of Kenzi’s loss in addition to permanent break it has kept inside our family members is indescribable. It haunts me personally daily her. that I became unable to protect”