SALT LAKE CITY — nearest and dearest of a Utah university student who had been discovered strangled and burned this past year following a seek out her that grabbed the nation’s attention called the guy who 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 his child, and stated he hopes Ajayi spends the remainder of beautiful people quizzes their life in jail searching over their neck in fear.
Ajayi has recognized he planned the loss of the 23-year-old Lueck, who he came across on a dating application and 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 almost anything to anticipate within the afterlife, if you truly believe in that,” Gregory Lueck stated. “My daughter Mackenzie Lueck had been a sweet, amazing dude with the whole world in front of her. She had been a person that is kindhearted 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 shall not be in a position to forgive what took place to her. We will never ever forgive the monster whom took her life. Never ever during my life have actually we felt anger the method we have the past 16 months. Not have I been so afraid for my entire life because i am aware exactly exactly 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 into the loss of a Utah university student Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, a lot more than per year after her disappearance sparked a search that is large-scale ended using the breakthrough of her charred keeps in their yard. Ajayi is anticipated to be sentenced to life in jail without having the potential for 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 stays were based in the summer time of 2019 in Ajayi’s garden 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 found together with her hands bound behind her.
Ajayi, 32, listened together with his head straight straight down as Lueck’s parents and cousins talked through the hearing in Salt Lake City, that was livestreamed for news to view. Whenever offered the opportunity to talk, he apologized to Lueck’s moms and dads in a quick declaration.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lueck, I’m sorry for just what i did so. We deserve just what I’m going to obtain,” Ajayi stated. “I’m sure this won’t bring her back.”
Ajayi pleaded guilty previously this month to aggravated murder and desecration of the corpse in an understanding with prosecutors that removed the likelihood associated with death penalty. Prosecutors dropped fees of aggravated kidnapping and justice that is obstructing.
A indigenous of Nigeria, Ajayi held a card that is green enables him to lawfully work and are now living in the U.S., prosecutors have stated. He had been a given I . t worker that has stints with high-profile organizations and was quickly into the Army nationwide Guard.
Authorities have not talked about a motive for the killing, but prosecutor Marc Mathis stated in the hearing that proof shows that Ajayi desired to know very well what it felt love 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, associated with 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 satisfy him in a park, prosecutors have stated. Her phone had been switched off a moment following the final text and never ever switched straight straight back on.
Ajayi planned the slaying prior to the meeting during the park and switched off the video clip in the home-security system her, Hamilton has said before he left to meet. 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 a belt was put by him around her throat, 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 as soon as the musical organization of cousins would play within their grandmother’s garden pool in Ca. That’s where she past saw and hugged her cousin before she came back to Utah and had been killed, Chloe Stevens stated as she cried.
“I replay those final moments together in my own mind over repeatedly, stricken with grief that we cannot somehow keep her with us only a little bit much longer,” she stated. “The discomfort of Kenzi’s loss as well as the fracture that is permanent has kept within our household is indescribable. It haunts me personally daily that I became unable to protect her.”