Man sentenced to 34 months in prison for raping woman dying from OD
LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- A 20-year-old Washington state man was sentenced Thursday to less than three years in prison for raping a high school student as she died from a drug overdose and texting semi-nude photos of her. Brian Varela had pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, third-degree rape, and unlawful disposal of remains as part of a plea deal in the February death of 18-year-old Alyssa Noceda.
Superior Court Judge Linda Krese said Thursday she could not sentence Brian Varela to more than 2 years and 10 months because it was the most prison time permitted for someone with no prior criminal record, The Daily Herald reported.
Krese said she was "surprised, even outraged," by the inadequacy of the sentence and suggested that state lawmakers may not have realized the impact of their decision when they set prison sentences for the charges.
"I'm not sure the Legislature really contemplated something like this," Krese said.
Varela told detectives that Noceda came to a party on Feb. 3 northeast of the Seattle suburb of Lynnwood. In Varela's room, he said Noceda snorted Percocet and also ingested liquid marijuana, court documents said. Tests later showed she had taken a fatal mix of fentanyl and alprazolam, a generic name for Xanax.
She collapsed within a minute of mixing the two, Varela told detectives. Authorities said Varela never sought help for Noceda and instead sent semi-nude photos of her to friends and texting "LOL, I think she od'd, still breathing."
Varela played an online game until he fell asleep, waking up in the morning to find Noceda's lips blue, court documents said.
He went to work at Dairy Queen and his co-worker contacted police in the following days after Varela said he didn't know if Noceda was still alive when he was having sex with her. Court records say he told a friend that "she died having sex with me."
Police arrested Varela later that day after executing a search warrant and finding Noceda's body in a plastic crate at the suspect's home.
Varela told investigators he planned to bury Noceda with onions to minimize the odor, police said. He also told detectives that after Noceda died, he used her thumb to unlock her phone Feb. 4 and send messages to make it appear she had run away.
In court Thursday, Varela said only, "I'm sorry for my foolish actions. Whatever I get is what I deserve."
Noceda's mother and aunt cried when they learned the likely sentence.
"You might as well let him walk free with that kind of time," Noceda's aunt, Rachelle Palmer said.
Noceda's mother Gina Pierson told CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO in February that before the teen left home the night she died, she yelled to each of her family members by name and told them she loved them. Pierson said she had a strange feeling that something bad might happen, but she kept the thought to herself.
"That was the last person my daughter saw," Pierson told KIRO of Varela. "Just made me sick, made me feel sick."