Brunn Pleads Guilty to Jorelys' Murder

Maintenance worker Ryan Brunn pleaded guilty this afternoon to the murder of 7-year-old Canton girl Jorelys Rivera.

Brunn, 20, will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole under his plea agreement.

"I know right from wrong," he said during a hearing.

Last week .

A charge of aggravated child molestation was reduced to child molestation Tuesday, and he'll serve his time on all charges concurrently with the murder conviction.

Brunn said he never touched Jorelys in a sexual way, but instead told her to touch herself after luring her to a vacant apartment, No. 10009. He said she followed his directions.

But then he feared she would tell her parents what had happened, so he slit her throat with a razor.

The object he used to lure her to the apartment also played a part in Jorelys' death, Brunn said. He showed her a photo of her own skate to get her to join him; he later beat her to death with that skate, hitting her five times.

He said he smoked marijuana that day before abducting Jorelys.

Until today, Brunn had been at the  since authorities arrested him Dec. 7, two days after investigators  in a compacting Dumpster from the apartment complex.

Jorelys and Brunn lived at the complex, where Brunn began working in November when he moved to Canton from Dahlonega.

In court Tuesday, Brunn said he left the note on the trash container that led authorities to the body inside. Written on a McDonald's receipt, the note read, "She's in the trash."

He said he disposed of her body before sundown Dec. 2, the day she disappeared.

Leaving that note was just a way to cause excitement by stirring up police activity, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan said after the court hearing.

Keenan said Brunn never shed a tear for Jorelys.

He also said the sexual assault on a child was not an isolated incident for Brunn. The 20-year-old also has molested children, including a family member, in Lumpkin County.

Brunn also committed molestation in Virginia, Cherokee County District Attorney Garry Moss said.

Roger Garrison, who serves on the board of the Georgia Department of Corrections, said he made arrangements in "advance for the Department of Corrections to be (at the ) waiting" for Brunn.

"They left with him after the plea," Garrison said. "He was taken back over to the  and reinterviewed by the GBI."

Brunn was officially turned over to the Department of Corrections at 6:30 p.m. He was transferred to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

Stay tuned to Canton-Sixes Patch for updates.