UT - Mackenzie “Kenzie” Lueck, 23, Salt Lake City, 17 June, 2019 Media, Maps, Timeline NO DISCUSS

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OCT 28, 2019
https://kutv.com/news/local/mackenzie-luecks-alleged-killer-trying-to-rent-his-house

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People who live next door to Ayoola Ajayi, the man charged with the murder of University of Utah Student MacKenzie Lueck, were surprised to see a "for lease" sign on the the front lawn of his house.

TC, who lives right next door, said he can't imagine it will draw tenants.

"It's a very creepy feeling. I still struggle being next door to that house," Camomile said.

[...]

While Utah law is very clear that a property owner does not have to disclose whether a property is "stigmatized" during a sale, the same law does not address rental properties.

[...]

2News called PMI Property Management, the company listed on the sign on Ajayi's property. Two employees who answered the phone said they had no idea about the murder case/investigation, and said the sign would be removed from the property.

About five hours after that phone call, two people showed up to the property and removed the sign. 2News spotted them as they walked away from the property with the sign. They yelled out that they were never in a formal agreement to manage the property.

[...]​
 
OCT 30, 2019
Man Accused In Mackenzie Lueck's Death In Court On Separate, Unrelated Cases
[...]

Ayoola Ajayi is facing charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated kidnapping and forced sexual abuse of an adult female. None of the additional charges are related to the Lueck case. A motion Wednesday would require the victim in one of the sexual assault cases to testify before a trial.

The judge heard arguments over a motion to request Brady materials, which she granted.

Also considered was a motion to quash a subpoena that would require the alleged victim to testify in a preliminary hearing. The state and an attorney from the Utah Crime Victims Legal Clinic argued against having the testimony at a preliminary hearing. They also noted the victim had already given a statement.

The defense, however, argued to have the testimony on record.

“(The testimony is appropriate) definitely for trial, and a defendant does have a right to confront his accuser, and so we’re not denying that,” said Laurel Hanks, attorney for the alleged victim. “We are just trying to keep court appearances to a minimum if we can. It can be traumatizing to come to court … and traumatizing for victims of, especially, sexual abuse.”

[...]

The judge will make a decision on the motion to quash subpoena by Nov. 20. The parties will meet again on Nov. 27 for a preliminary hearing.

[...]
 
OCT 30, 2019
Should accuser be forced to testify in sex assault hearing for man charged in Lueck killing?
[...]

Lawyers for Ayoola Adisa Ajayi want to put the woman on the stand to probe what they say are discrepancies in her initial discussions with police and a signed, two-page statement she submitted to a judge in lieu of testifying.

[...]

Prosecutor Marc Mathis said the woman’s statements don’t conflict and the document that was admitted in court simply distills the facts. He argued the only point of putting the woman on the stand is to attack her credibility, a move he said is fitting at trial but not at the preliminary hearing stage.

[...]

The document meets the standard of probable cause required for the case to move forward and any further testimony she gives wouldn’t change that, Mathis said.

Utah has long permitted a victim statement instead of testimony at a preliminary hearing. Whether or not a defendant can then summon a victim to the stand, however, has been debated. The Utah Court of Appeals currently is considering the question in a separate case.

[...]

The woman’s attorney, Laurel Hanks, said Utah’s victim rights law protects her client from harassment like being forced to give unnecessary testimony before trial. She said differences in the statements are explained by the effects of trauma and forcing her client to testify would only serve to traumatize her.

Ajayi, who wore glasses and a yellow jumpsuit, did not speak during the Wednesday hearing. He is separately accused of murdering Lueck and setting fire to her body in June.

[...]

While she originally told police she had blocked Ajayi’s number, Hamilton said last month that the woman spoke with investigators again after forensic analysis of her phone showed they continued to exchange messages.

Trease is scheduled to rule Nov. 20 whether the woman can be compelled to testify at a second portion of the preliminary hearing a week later, when Ajayi also will have a chance to testify in his own defense.

[...]
 
NOV 20, 2019
Woman won’t be forced to testify in sex assault case for man also charged in Mackenzie Lueck’s death
A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by the man later charged in the death of Utah college student Mackenzie Lueck will not be required to testify against him ahead of a possible trial.

Third District Judge Vernice Trease sided with prosecutors and the woman’s attorney Wednesday, finding Utah’s victim rights law protects the woman from being forced to take the stand at a remaining portion of a preliminary hearing next week.

[...]

That’s true at the trial stage, but not at the earlier preliminary hearing, which is designed to determine whether there is enough evidence for the sexual assault case to move forward, Trease said.

[...]

His client has not yet entered pleas to the charges of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony, and three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

[...]

In that case, prosecutors have charged him with killing Lueck and setting fire to her body in June. A preliminary hearing is set for March. [3/11 & 3/12] Investigators learned about the assault allegation, which predates Lueck’s death by more than a year, as they gathered evidence in the homicide.
 
NOV 21, 2019
Woman won’t be forced to testify in sex assault case for man also charged in Mackenzie Lueck’s death
[...]

Laurel Hanks, the woman’s attorney, said her client had been worried as she awaited the judge’s decision.

“You add the trauma of coming to court to what she’s already been through, and it’s very difficult. We’re very glad for Judge Trease’s ruling today,” Hanks said. She and prosecutors had argued a statement the woman submitted meets the standard of probable cause that is required for the case to move forward. Requiring her to testify at the early stage, they said, would amount to harassment.

The woman had signed a two-page document detailing how she says Ajayi assaulted her while they watched a movie in his Salt Lake City home, then tried to prevent her from leaving. The Deseret News typically does not name victims of sexual assault.

Utah allows victims in alleged crimes to submit a statement in place of testimony at a preliminary hearing, but the question of whether they can then be summoned to the stand has not been settled.

The Utah Court of Appeals currently is considering the question in a separate case, where defense attorneys are seeking to question a child who told investigators she was raped.

[...]
 
NOV 23, 2019
The University of Utah got a $300K grant to address stalking and dating violence after 4 women there have been killed in the last 3 years

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Lauren McCluskey, Katherine Peralta, MacKenzie Lueck and Sarah Hawley.

The University of Utah has received a $300,000 federal grant to improve how it responds to cases of stalking and dating and domestic violence on campus — funding that comes after four women there have been killed over the past three years by partners or men they had dated.

The award money from the U.S. Department of Justice, announced Thursday, will go toward implementing additional training for police officers and hiring a new part-time victim advocate at the school’s Center for Student Wellness. It will also be used to partner with the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, which will lead the changes.

[...]

“The timing of this grant represents a moment when the wounds of [recent] fatal violence weigh heavy on the campus psyche, leaving us with a universal and overwhelming commitment to primary prevention,” said Sonia Salari, a family studies professor who will help guide the efforts.
 
NOV 27, 2019
Separate sex assault trial scheduled for man accused in death of Mackenzie Lueck
Defense attorneys for the man charged in the death of University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck acknowledge there is enough evidence for his separate sexual assault charges to advance to trial.

Ayoola Adisa Ajayi’s lawyers are pushing back, however, on an allegation of aggravated kidnapping. He faces the first-degree felony charge after a woman told investigators he pinned her arms down and assaulted her during a dinner date at his Salt Lake City home in March 2018.

[…]

Judge Vernice Trease said she will rule Dec. 20 on whether prosecutors have met their burden of probable cause to support the kidnapping charge. In the meantime, she scheduled a two-day jury trial to begin in February on three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

[…]
 
NOV 27, 2019
Separate sex assault trial scheduled for man accused in death of Mackenzie Lueck
[…]

“Everyone’s in agreement that there will be a bindover on forcible sexual abuse, because at a preliminary hearing, all inferences are taken in favor of the state,” Ajayi’s defense attorney Neal Hamilton said after the hearing. “And although we do have concerns and issues with the evidence, we acknowledge there’s certainly enough there for bindover at this point.”

Prosecutors argued Ajayi held the woman’s arms down before assaulting her, an action distinct from the alleged sexual contact and that supported the kidnapping charge.

Hamilton countered that the alleged behavior may amount to unlawful detention, which fits a lesser, third-degree felony. But he said the woman wasn’t held for a substantial period of time or in a life-threatening circumstance, and any actions his client took to block her from leaving were not separate from the assault.

[…]

A quiet Ajayi appeared in glasses and a yellow jail uniform Wednesday, speaking only to reply, “Yes, your honor,” to questions from the judge.

[…]
 
DEC 20, 2019
Man accused of killing Mackenzie Lueck to stand trial in separate sex assault case
[…]

Third District Judge Vernice Trease ruled Friday the evidence against Ayoola Adisa Ajayi meets the standard of probable cause in each of four criminal charges. A trial was scheduled to begin in February.

The 31-year-old Ajayi, shackled and in a yellow jail uniform, hung his head as the judge read her order. ...

Trease entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to charges of aggravated kidnapping, a first-degree felony; and three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

[…]
 
DEC 21, 2019
Suspect in California student Mackenzie Lueck's slaying will stand trial in sexual assault case

Utah_Student_Killed-Assault_Case_36513.jpg


A man accused of killing a Utah college student was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted another woman he met on a dating site more than a year before the slaying.

Ayoola Ajayi, 31, pleaded not guilty to felony kidnapping and three counts of forcible sexual abuse.

[…]

Ajayi was also charged with sexual exploitation of a minor after investigators discovered child *advertiser censored* on his computer.

He has not yet entered pleas to those charges, and his lawyers have not commented.
 
warrant reveals new info about ML's last moments...

Warrant reveals new information about the last moments of MacKenzie Lueck's life

"
The Lyft driver who dropped MacKenzie off at Hatch Park — where police believe she was picked up by Ajayi — after she got back to Salt Lake that night also offered some unusual information.

A maroon Subaru was already in the parking lot when the Lyft driver pulled up to Hatch Park. He told police that he saw a women get out of a vehicle to greet Lueck, and that Lueck and the unknown woman appeared casual and friendly with each other."
 
FEB 5, 2020
Court documents outline new details in Mackenzie Lueck murder case
Ayoola Adisa Ajayi claimed he was burning pallets in his backyard.

But the man who was renting the basement Airbnb in Ajayi’s house told police he couldn’t believe Ajayi ignited such a fire in the Fairpark neighborhood, according to newly released court documents.

“Ayoola had the pallets and what he described as a white door on fire behind the garage. He said he stayed on the patio and did not approach the fire. (He) said a neighbor lady then started yelling at Ayoola and telling him if he did not put the fire out she was going to call the fire department. (The renter) said he could not believe Ayoola had ignited the fire in his backyard and went inside because he did not want to be involved with the incident,” according to a search warrant affidavit filed in 3rd District Court.

[...]

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office could not comment Wednesday on whether investigators believe there was a second woman at Hatch Park, stating only that the warrants are based on preliminary information available to police at the time, and additional information will be flushed out during court proceedings.

[...]

Other warrants state that at least one man and possibly two were staying at Ajayi’s house at the time Lueck was allegedly killed.

One man, from Texas, said he awoke on June 17 to find Ajayi already awake, the warrant states.

“(He) walked outside to the driveway from the basement Airbnb apartment. (He) said Ayoola was sitting on a trash can in front of his open garage next to his Kia Optima. (He) said Ayoola asked him if he knew how to get gas out of a vehicle. (Ajayi) went on to say he had been trying to siphon gas out of his car and had been unsuccessful. ... Ayoola told him he wanted to burn some pallets that were stacked against the fence in the driveway,” the warrant states.

“Ayoola then told him he had been up all night and was ‘going on no sleep.’”

[...]

According to the returns on some of those warrants, some of the items seized by police from Ajayi’s house as potential evidence included knives, razors blades, scissors, a stun gun, sweatpants and a hoodie with bleach stains, shoes and socks with blood stains located near a washing machine, and “multiple pieces of cut up bone, located in (an) upstairs bathroom garbage.”

[...]

On July 15, Salt Lake police announced that new items of evidence related to the Lueck case were found in the Jordan River. According to a recently unsealed warrant, those items included Lueck’s University of Utah student ID card and “multiple items of women’s clothing strung along the bank of the Jordan River.

“All of the clothing found was cut with a sharp cutting instrument consistent with a knife, scissors, razor blade, etc. Among the items recovered was a bra which had been partially burned and melted and is consistent with articles of clothing that were burned at the initial dig site,” police wrote in the affidavits.

[...]
 
FEB 5, 2020
Warrant reveals new information about the last moments of MacKenzie Lueck's life
Summary:
  1. A recently unsealed search warrant contains some new details.
  2. ML's parents became suspicious when an iMessage did not go through to ML's phone shortly after she texted that her flight landed in SLC. ML texted her mother, “Landed,” and “Love you mama,” after she arrived at approx 2 a.m. GL noticed that his wife’s reply to ML was green instead of blue, indicating ML’s phone wasn’t on, she was out of service, or her iMessage was not working.
  3. The Lueck's said they knew ML planned to use rideshare from the airport.
  4. The Lyft driver who dropped MacKenzie off at Hatch Park also offered some unusual information.
  5. A maroon Subaru was already in the parking lot when the Lyft driver arrived at Hatch Park. He said he saw a women get out of a vehicle to greet ML, and that ML and the woman appeared casual and friendly.
  6. ML's father said after her death, he found a separate bank account in her name which he was previously unaware of. A SLCPD warrant found a bank application dated June 4. Detectives also found bank statements for opening a new account dated Feb. 4.
  7. Friends told police that ML was on Tinder, Seeking Arrangements, Call Her Daddy, which "include sexual conversation, photos, videos and date arrangements that ML has been involved in for quite some time."
  8. GL, who was the account holder for ML’s AT&T mobile number, found messages between ML’s phone and a 206 area code number. That number belonged to TextMe, a third-party messaging app. The communication began on June 3 and continued up until ML's phone was powered off on June 17.
  9. TextMe records revealed several IP addresses that communicated with ML's phone on the day she disappeared. One of those was registered to Ajayi.
  10. After AA gave officers permission to search his phone, they found an app called Seeking Arrangements installed on the device. Shortly after leaving the home, AA contacted police to say he received a text message from ML's phone on June 16 at 6:12 p.m. It was a question mark. He responded with, “seeking arrangement.” He also sent of a photo of himself at ML’s request.
  11. LE found ML's personal phone number saved in Ayaji's phone as an unnamed entry/contact with the words "TextMe" underneath it.
  12. Surveillance video showed a dark-colored 4-door Sedan leaving Hatch Park on June 17 shortly after the Lyft driver. Detectives compared the vehicle on the video to the 2013 Kia Optima owned by AA.
  13. "The characteristics of the vehicle on the video are consistent with the shape, size and general appearance of a Kia Optima," the warrant states.
  14. On June 26, LE served a search warrant on AA's residence, property and vehicle. A 6 foot by 7-inches area in the backyard was covered in a thin layer of mulch. A garden hose was dragged over the area and a piece of wood fencing had a smoke pattern in the shape of a wheelbarrow, which was found inside the garage.
  15. “A certified cadaver dog was brought into the yard and almost immediately indicated on the area of the yard that had been disturbed at 19:24 hours."
  16. "An alleyway runs behind the property and items that appeared to be semi-burned were located just on the other side of the fence on Ayoola Ajayi’s yard. Those items included what looked like black clothing and a possible strap from a purse or backpack.”
 
FEB 5, 2020
Court documents outline new details in Mackenzie Lueck murder case
[...]

When police interviewed the Lyft driver on June 21, he said Lueck was met by a woman who helped her put her luggage into Ajayi’s car.

[...]

In the third case, he is charged with aggravated kidnapping and three counts of forcible sexual abuse. Those charges were filed after a woman who claimed she was assaulted by Ajayi in his house in 2018 saw news coverage on the Lueck case, recognized Ajayi and contacted police. A two-day trial is scheduled to begin in that case on Feb. 25.
 
cristina flores on Twitter
NEW: this is the Lyft driver who gave a ride to U of U student MacKenzie Lueck before she vanished last June and was killed. He was one of the last people to see her alive. His story coming up on ⁦@KUTV2News⁩ at 5.
EQDPXLbUYAEUx7B.jpg

4:58 PM - 5 Feb 2020

Exclusive: Man who gave Mackenzie Lueck Lyft ride before she vanished breaks silence
[...]

The Lyft driver stayed out of the spotlight until he was cleared by police.

“It really tore me up,” he told 2News, nearly eight months after that unforgettable ride with the University of Utah student who vanished, then was found dead in Logan Canyon after a high-profile search that drew national attention.

[...]

MC said there was nothing unusual about the ride, until the small talk turned to a comment about something being strange. “and she said, ‘not as strange as where you are dropping me off in the middle of a park.’ She actually brought that up and said it was odd she was being dropped off there,” he recalled.

[...]

He parked in the stall next to the Subaru, grabbed Lueck’s bag from his trunk, and put it in the hatchback of the Subaru.

Then he noticed what he assumed to be a woman in the car. He saw one person with dark curly hair in the vehicle.

“I heard a faint voice,” he said assuming it was a woman’s voice.

Canada said the faintness of the voice also led him to believe it was a woman in the vehicle.

Days later, police interviewed him. After that, he learned the suspect was a man. He saw the mugshot of 31-year-old Ayoola Ajayi in news coverage and did not remember seeing him in the car.

[...]
 
FEB 6, 2020
At least one renter was staying with MacKenzie Lueck’s alleged killer at the home where police believe she died
On the night University of Utah student MacKenzie Lueck disappeared, at least one and perhaps two men were renting rooms in the Salt Lake City home of her accused killer, newly unsealed documents show.

[...]

One of the men confirmed he was staying at the home, in the Fairpark neighborhood, from June 15 to June 21. On the morning of June 17, the renter said, he awoke to find Ajayi sitting on a trash can in front of his open garage, next to his Kia Optima.

[...]

Investigators also sought information on a third person who may have been in contact with Ajayi at the time Lueck died: another renter who reportedly was staying at Ajayi’s house at that time.

The renter who went to buy gas with Ajayi on June 17 said a second man checked in on June 15 and “left unexpectedly” four days later, police wrote.

Ajayi confirmed the second renter had prepaid for 30 days and was at his home on June 16, police wrote. But when investigators called that man, he said he had stayed at Ajayi’s house for nine days earlier that month, leaving June 14.

If that were true, investigators noted, he would not have encountered the other renter, who arrived June 15. Airbnb records align with the earlier dates reported by the man, police wrote, leading investigators to believe the man was renting from Ajayi apart from Airbnb.

Police also sought phone and digital records tied to the second renter. At the time of Lueck’s death, the man was a suspect in a rape case in Salt Lake City; he since has been charged with first-degree felony rape.

[...]
 
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