Slain Utah University Student’s Family Confronts Her Killer Before Sentencing

SALT LAKE CITY — family of the Utah scholar who was simply discovered strangled and burned a year ago after a look for her that grabbed the nation’s attention called the guy whom pleaded bad to her murder a “monster” Friday while they confronted him before he had been sentenced to life in jail without having the probability of parole.
Mackenzie Lueck’s dad, Gregory Lueck, told Ayoola A. Ajayi 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 their neck in fear.
Ajayi has acknowledged he planned the loss of the 23-year-old Lueck, who he came across for a dating application and arranged to meet up with in a park. For her, authorities say after they returned to his home, he bound and strangled her, then burned and hid her body while police and loved ones searched.
“I’m maybe maybe not certain you even have almost anything to enjoy when you look at the afterlife, if you truly believe in that,” Gregory Lueck stated. “My child Mackenzie Lueck ended up being a sweet, amazing woman with the entire 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, said through rips: “This is really a nightmare you can’t awaken from. We shall not be in a position to forgive exactly exactly what occurred to her. We will never ever forgive the monster whom took her life. Never ever within my life have actually we felt anger the real way i have actually the past 16 months. Do not have we been therefore fearful for my entire life because i am aware exactly how genuine evil is in this globe.”
FILE – In this, file picture, Ayoola A. Ajayi seems in third District Court in Salt Lake City. Ajayi pleaded responsible when you look at the loss of a Utah university student Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, significantly more than a 12 months after her disappearance sparked a large-scale search that ended using the breakthrough of her charred keeps in their yard. Ajayi is anticipated to be sentenced to life in jail without having the chance for parole into the loss of 23-year-old Mackenzie Lueck. (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret Information via AP, File)
Ajayi Pleaded Guilty Previously This to Aggravated Murder and Desecration of a Corpse month
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 anatomy in a superficial grave in a canyon almost 100 kilometers (161 kilometers) north, where she ended up being discovered together with her hands bound behind her.
Ajayi, 32, listened together with his head down as Lueck’s parents and cousins spoke throughout the hearing in Salt Lake City, that was livestreamed for news to look at. Whenever provided to be able to talk, he apologized to Lueck’s moms and dads in a statement that is short.
“Mr. and Mrs. Lueck, I’m sorry for just what used to do. We deserve exactly exactly just what I’m going to have,” Ajayi said. “I’m sure this won’t bring her straight back.”
Ajayi pleaded accountable earlier in the day this month to aggravated murder and desecration of the corpse in an understanding with prosecutors that eliminated the likelihood associated with the death penalty. Prosecutors dropped costs of aggravated kidnapping and obstructing justice.
A indigenous of Nigeria, Ajayi held a card that is green enables him to legitimately work and are now living in the U.S., prosecutors have stated. He had been information technology worker that has stints with high-profile businesses and had been shortly in the Army nationwide Guard.
Authorities haven’t talked about a motive for the killing, but prosecutor Marc Mathis stated at the hearing that evidence implies that Ajayi desired to know what it https://datingrating.net/connecting-singles-review felt love to destroy somebody.
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 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 with him in a park, prosecutors have stated. Her phone had been switched off a moment following the text that is last never ever switched straight back on.
Ajayi planned the slaying ahead of the conference 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 initially to choke her. She attempted to stop him, after which it 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 an actual “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 yard pool in California. That’s where she past saw and hugged her cousin before she gone back to Utah and had been killed, Chloe Stevens stated as she cried.
“I replay those last moments together during my mind over and over repeatedly, stricken with grief with us just a little bit longer,” she said that I cannot somehow keep her. “The discomfort of Kenzi’s loss and also the fracture that is permanent has kept within our family members is indescribable. It haunts me daily her. that I became unable to protect”