Sponsored:
Martha Lake, WA – A 20-year-old Washington man who raped an 18-year-old woman as she lay dying was sentenced to just 34 months in prison.
The man, identified as Brian Varela by The Daily Herald, texted nude photos of Alyssa Noceda’s body to his friends, and stuffed her body in a plastic box with the intent to bury her later.
He also texted friends “LOL I think she od’d, still breathing,” and then used a slang word for sex and implied he’d been having sex with her to “pass the time,” according to court papers.
According to KOMO, he pleaded guilty to charges of 2nd Degree Manslaughter, 3rd Degree Rape, and Unlawful Disposal of Remains.
Despite the guilty plea, sentencing guidelines called for a light sentence for the first-time offender.
The judge said that she wished she could sentence Varela for longer, but state law required her to sentence him to no more than 34 months in prison.
“It’s a joke,” Alyssa’s mother told KOMO. “Usually people who do stuff like this don’t get away with a slap on the wrist.”
The Seattle Times reported that the night of the rape, Noceda, who was a student at Mariner High School, went to a party at the suspect’s mobile home park on Feb. 3.
According to police records, the victim had just broken up with her boyfriend, and she contacted Varela on social media that same day.
Varela told police that Noceda had snorted crushed up Percocet tablets, and taken a dab of liquid THC. He said she seemed out of it when he had sex with her.
The Daily Herald reported that Varela asked his roommate for help after Noceda passed out.
The roommate told Varela to call the police, but instead, Varela left and went to work a double shift at a local Dairy Queen.
While at work, Varela boasted to a coworker that the woman died while having sex with him. Varela reportedly told the coworker that he wanted to take her to the hospital but was “too tired” to do it and went to sleep instead.
He stopped by his mother’s to pick up a plastic storage box, and put Noceda’s body in it when he got home.
Afterward, Varela used Noceda’s thumb to unlock her cell phone, so he could post on social media to make it appear as though the dead young woman had run away, according to The Daily Herald.
Varela told police that he went online to research how to get rid of a body.
The victim’s body was at the mobile home for three days before police discovered it in the black storage box in the suspect’s bedroom.
It was found when one of Varela’s coworkers tipped off police, after Varela showed him photos of the dead body, and told him how the woman died, the Seattle Times reported.