Man gets less than 3 years in prison for raping dying teen, hiding her dead body

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A 20-year-old man in Washington, United States was sentenced to two years and 10 months in prison for raping an 18-year-old who overdosed from the drugs he gave her, and for hiding her lifeless body.

The less-than-three years prison sentence was the heaviest jail time Superior Court Judge Linda Krese could give to suspect Brian Varela on Nov. 15, as reported by The Herald on Tuesday, Nov. 20. Valera, who had no prior record, was charged with second-degree manslaughter, third-degree rape and unlawful disposal of human remains for the crime.

The victim, Alyssa Noceda, went to a party in February where she met Valera. The suspect said the victim collapsed after snorting crushed Percocet (pain medication made from combined oxycodone and paracetamol) pills and concentrated tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, a chemical found in marijuana). However, post-mortem examinations later revealed Noceda took a mix of Fentanyl (pain medication) and alprazoalam which is the generic term for Xanax, a minor tranquilizer.

While Noceda was overdosing from the fatal mix, Varela raped the dying woman, the report said. He made fun of Noceda, sending his coworkers pictures of the victim’s partly nude body instead of calling for help.

Around the same time the crime was happening, the victim’s mother, Gina Pierson, had been contacting her daughter to no avail.

Varela played an online game after raping Noceda and fell asleep not long after. When he woke up the next day, Noceda was dead — her lips were blue and she was already cold to the touch.

He still did not call the authorities. After going home from work, he put Noceda’s body in a plastic crate and hid it for days.

He went as far as to use Noceda’s thumbprint to hack her phone. He tricked the victim’s family into thinking via a Snapchat post he made that she ran away, the report stated. After washing the body of the victim to destroy evidence linking him to the crime, he told his coworkers he planned to bury the body in another city in Washington and make a run for Mexico. One coworker of his, however, reported his plans to the police.

“I’m sorry for my foolish actions,” Valera said during the hearing, as per report. “Whatever I get is what I deserve.”

Noceda’s mother and aunt cried after hearing Valera’s prison sentence. While Noceda’s mother has tried to forgive the suspect, the victim’s aunt, Rachelle Palmer could not find it in her heart to pardon Valera. She noted that the suspect had many chances to report what happened to her niece.

“One of those things was a mistake,” Palmer said in the report. “But it was continuous. Lie after lie after lie after lie. I can forgive you for a mistake. This wasn’t a mistake.”

Meanwhile, the judge who sentenced Valera could understand the “outrage” Noceda’s family and friends felt after she announced the ruling.

“Frankly, I too find the available sentence to be really inadequate to what happened here,” Krese told the publication, noting that there were some cases of auto theft with heavier penalties imposed. Kate Matriano/JB

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