A man sentenced to 34 months in prison for raping a woman who died as a result of an OD

LYNNWOOD, Wash. – A 20-year-old man from Washington State was sentenced on Thursday to less than three years in prison for raping a high school student while she died from a drug overdose and sent her photos semi-open. Brian Varela pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter, third degree rape and illegal disposition of human remains as part of a plea agreement relating to the death of elderly Alyssa Noceda 18 years old.

Judge Linda Krese of the Superior Court said Thursday that she could not sentence Brian Varela to more than 2 years and 10 months because it was the maximum jail sentence allowed for a person without a criminal record, reported the Daily Herald.

Krese said she was "surprised or even outraged" by the inadequacy of the sentence and suggested that state legislators may not have understood the law. impact of their decision when they set prison terms for the charge leaders.

"I'm not sure the Legislature has really considered such a thing," said Krese.

Varela told the detectives that Noceda had come to a party on Feb. 3 northeast of Lynnwood, a suburb of Seattle. In Varela's room, he said Noceda had sniffed Percocet and also ingested liquid marijuana, according to court documents. Tests later showed that she had taken a fatal mixture of fentanyl and alprazolam, the generic name of Xanax.

She collapsed a minute after mixing the two, Varela told the detectives. The authorities said that Varela had never asked for help for Noceda. She instead sent half-naked photos of her to friends and texted her "LOL, I think she seemed to be breathing again."

Varela played an online game until he went to sleep, waking up in the morning to find Noceda's blue lips, according to court documents.

He went to work at Dairy Queen and his colleague contacted the police a few days after Varela said he did not know if Noceda was still alive when he had sex with her. The court records say that he told a friend that "she died while having slept with me."

The police arrested Varela later in the day after executing a search warrant and found Noceda's body in a plastic crate at the suspect's home.

Varela told investigators that he planned to bury Noceda with onions to minimize the odor, police said. He also told the detectives that after Noceda's death, he had used his thumb to unlock his phone on Feb. 4 and send messages to suggest that she had escaped.

In court on Thursday, Varela only said, "I'm sorry for my stupid actions, all I get is what I deserve."

Noceda's mother and aunt cried when they learned the probable sentence.

"You might as well let him walk freely with this kind of weather," said Rachelle Palmer, Noceda's aunt.

Noceda's mother, Gina Pierson, told the CBS affiliate in KIRO in February that, before leaving home on the night of her death, she had shouted to each of her family members and told them that she had been killed. she loved them. Pierson said that she had the strange feeling that something bad could happen, but she kept this thought for her.

"It's the last person my daughter saw," Pierson told KIRO about Varela. "I just got sick, I felt sick."