A maintenance worker admitted that he lured 7-year-old Jorelys Rivera into a vacant apartment to sexually assault her. Mr. Ryan Brunn said he then got scared and killed her.
On Tuesday, Mr. Brunn, 20, pleaded guilty to the molestation and murder of the first-grader at her River Ridge apartment complex in Canton on Dec. 2, Cherokee County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Jay Howard said.
Judge Frank Mills sentenced the apartment worker to life without parole, Lt. Baker said. Mr.Brunn could have faced the death penalty if he had been convicted at trial.
Mr. Brunn gave a full confession on the stand of what he did.
“He said he lured Jorelys in the abandoned apartment for the purpose of sex. Then he became scared and killed her to prevent her from telling her family what he had done,” Lt. Howard said.
The disclosure came after the judge forced him to take the witness stand before his plea was accepted, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Jorelys went missing from the park at the complex after telling friends she was thirsty and was going inside to get a drink.
The girl’s older sister had been watching her, but wasn’t there when Jorelys left.
Mr. Brunn said he had found a roller skate belonging to the child outside her apartment building and used it as a lure, the AJC reported. He took a photograph of the skate and, after asking Jorelys if it was hers, he told her to follow him and he would get it for her.
After abusing Jorelys and cutting her throat, Mr. Brunn said he repeatedly struck her with the skate and wrapped her body in a sheet or blanket, then drove it on a golf cart to the trash compactor.
Later, he wrote a note on a McDonald's receipt and taped it to the compactor for investigators to find. It said: "She's in the trash can."
Investigators at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab matched the handwriting on the note to Mr. Brunn. They also found Mr. Brunn's fingerprints and Jorelys' blood on rubber gloves taken from the apartment.
Mr. Brunn had been indicted on charges of murder, aggravated child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, false imprisonment, abandonment of a dead body, making a false statement, sexual exploitation of children and two counts each of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and cruelty to children in the first degree.
Mr. Brunn had moved to the complex in November and was living there for free in return for doing maintenance work.
On Tuesday in court, he turned to the dead girl's family and said, "Lo siento" -- "I'm sorry" in Spanish, the AJC reported.
District Attorney Gary Moss read a statement from the girl’s family.
He could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.
To get updates and to read more local news stories, go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atlanta-Public-Safety-Examiner/195837070474348#!/pages/Atlanta-Public-Safety-Examiner/195837070474348?sk=wall
Comments