SALT LAKE CITY — nearest and dearest of the Utah university student who had been discovered strangled and burned this past year after a look for her that grabbed the nation’s attention called the man 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 he had no compassion for him because Ajayi had showed no compassion for their child, and said he hopes Ajayi spends the remainder of their life in jail looking over their shoulder in fear.

Ajayi has recognized he planned the loss of the 23-year-old Lueck, who he came across on an app that is dating arranged to fulfill in a park. Once they returned 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 say.

“I’m maybe maybe not certain you even have such a thing to look forward to into the afterlife, www.datingrating.net/catholicmatch-review/ if you have belief in that,” Gregory Lueck stated. “My child Mackenzie Lueck had been a sweet, amazing dude with the planet in front of her. She ended up being a kindhearted individual that cared about other people. Now, we shall 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 shall not be in a position to forgive exactly what occurred to her. We will never ever forgive the monster whom took her life. Never ever during my life have we felt anger the method I have actually the very last 16 months. Not have we been therefore afraid for my entire life because i am aware exactly 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 a 12 months after her disappearance sparked a large-scale search that ended because of the development of her charred stays in their garden. Ajayi is anticipated to be sentenced to life in jail minus the risk 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 to Aggravated Murder and Desecration of a Corpse month

The Lueck family members 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 remainder of her human anatomy in a superficial grave in a canyon almost 100 kilometers (161 kilometers) north, where she had been discovered together with her arms bound behind her.

Ajayi, 32, listened together with his head straight straight down as Lueck’s parents and cousins talked throughout the hearing in Salt Lake City, that was livestreamed for news to view. Whenever offered a chance 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. We deserve just just what I’m going to have,” Ajayi stated. “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 agreement with prosecutors that eliminated the alternative associated with death penalty. Prosecutors dropped fees of aggravated kidnapping and obstructing justice.

A indigenous of Nigeria, Ajayi held a card that is green enables him to legitimately work and reside in the U.S., prosecutors have said. He had been information technology worker that has stints with high-profile companies and had been fleetingly when you look at the Army nationwide Guard.

Authorities haven’t 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, 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 one minute following the text that is last never ever switched straight right back on.

Ajayi planned the slaying ahead of the conference in the park and switched off the movie in the home-security system her, Hamilton has said before he left to meet. Once they came back to their Salt Lake City house, Ajayi tied her up and begun 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 a genuine “spitfire.”

Cousin Chloe Stevens said her fondest memories of her relative result from summers as soon as the musical organization of cousins would play within their backyard that is grandmother’s pool Ca. That’s where she past saw and hugged her cousin before she gone back to Utah and ended up being killed, Chloe Stevens stated as she cried.

“I replay those last moments together within my mind 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 together with fracture that is permanent has kept within our household is indescribable. It haunts me personally daily that I happened to be unable to protect her.”