'I will never forgive the monster who took her life': Family of murdered Utah student confront her killer as a judge sentences him to life

Relatives of a Utah college student who was found strangled and burned last year described her killer as a 'monster' on Friday, in a hearing before he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Mackenzie Lueck, 23, from California, was murdered in June 2019 by Ayoola Ajayi, who she had met online.

Lueck arranged to meet Ajayi at a park, and then went back to his house where he had turned off the CCTV cameras in anticipation of killing her.   

Authorities have never discussed a motive for the killing, but prosecutor Marc Mathis said at the hearing that evidence suggests that Ajayi wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.

'This was murder for murder's sake,' said Mathis, of the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office. 

Ajayi (during his arrest in June 2019) was sentenced to life in prison on Friday

On Friday, ahead of Ajayi's sentencing to life for the murder, Mackenzie's father, Gregory Lueck, told the court that he had no compassion for Ajayi because he had showed no compassion for his daughter.

Gregory Lueck said he hopes Ajayi, who pleaded guilty to murder and admitted planning the killing, spends the rest of his life in prison looking over his shoulder in fear.

Mackenzie had signed up to an app to be matched with older men 

'I'm not sure you even have anything to look forward to in the afterlife, if you believe in that,' he said. 

'My daughter Mackenzie Lueck was a sweet, amazing young lady with the world ahead of her. 

'She was a kindhearted person that cared about others. 

'Now, I will not have the opportunity to see her blossom in life.'

Mackenzie Lueck was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and a part-time senior at the University of Utah studying kinesiology and pre-nursing. She was expected to graduate in spring 2020. 

Her cousin, Carly Stevens, said through tears: 'This is a nightmare you can't wake up from. 

'I will never be able to forgive what happened to her. I will never forgive the monster who took her life. 

'Never in my life have I felt anger the way I have the last 16 months. Never have I been so fearful for my life because I know how real evil is in this world.'

The Lueck family had not said much publicly since their daughter's charred remains were found in the summer of 2019 in Ajayi's backyard in Salt Lake City. 

Ayaji later told police he buried the rest of her body in a shallow grave in a canyon nearly 100 miles north, where she was found with her arms bound behind her.

Ashley Fine speaks during a July 1, 2019 vigil for Mackenzie Lueck at the university

Police have said Lueck was last seen getting into Ajayi's (pictured in December 2019) car on June 17. She was reported missing three days later

Ajayi, 32, listened with his head down as Lueck's parents and cousins spoke during the hearing in Salt Lake City, which was livestreamed for media to watch. 

When given a chance to speak, he apologized to Lueck's parents in a short statement.

'Mr and Mrs Lueck, I'm sorry for what I did,' he said. 

'I deserve what I'm going to get. I know this won't bring her back.' 

Ajayi pleaded guilty earlier this month to aggravated murder and desecration of a corpse in an agreement with prosecutors that removed the possibility of the death penalty. 

Prosecutors dropped charges of aggravated kidnapping and obstructing justice.

A native of Nigeria, Ajayi held a green card that allowed him to legally work and live in the U.S., prosecutors have said. 

He was an information technology worker who had stints with high-profile companies and was briefly in the Army National Guard.

Mackenzie Lueck went missing in June 2019, after returning from a trip home to El Segundo, California, for her grandmother's funeral. 

She took a Lyft to meet him in a park, prosecutors have said. Her phone was turned off a minute after the last text and never turned back on.

The 23-year-old student had just flown back to Utah after her grandmother's funeral in California. She is shown in surveillance footage taken in the airport, one of the last times she was seen alive

Ajayi took the 23-year-old back to his home in Salt Lake City, tied her up and choked her

Ajayi planned the killing before the meeting at the park and turned off the video in his home-security system before he left to meet her, Hamilton has said. 

When they returned to his Salt Lake City home, Ajayi tied her up and began to choke her. 

Ajayi pleaded guilty to her murder last month

She tried to stop him, after which he put a belt around her neck, pushed her onto her stomach and strangled her, the attorney said.

Mackenzie Lueck's mother, Diana Lueck, remembered her daughter as a kind, loving and caring young woman who was a real 'spitfire.'

Cousin Chloe Stevens said her fondest memories of her cousin come from summers when the band of cousins would play in their grandmother's backyard pool in California. 

That's where she last saw and hugged her cousin before she returned to Utah and was killed, Chloe Stevens said as she cried.

'I replay those final moments together in my head over and over, stricken with grief that I cannot somehow keep her with us just a little bit longer,' she said. 

'The pain of Kenzi's loss and the permanent fracture it has left in our family is indescribable. 

'It haunts me daily that I was not able to protect her.'

Ajayi, a tech worker from Nigeria in the US on a green card, is seen in court in December 2019