Mich. man sentenced to life for killing girlfriend whose body is still missing
09/06/2023 12:56 pm PDT
EAST LANSING, Mich. (TCD) -- A judge has ordered a 56-year-old man to spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his girlfriend in 2008, although her remains have still not been found.
Ingham County court records show Brad Cournaya was sentenced to life Wednesday, Sept. 6, following his first-degree murder conviction in June for the death of Krista Lueth.
Cournaya is already serving time in the Michigan Department of Corrections for human trafficking of a minor for commercial sexual activity and using computers to commit a crime. He also previously spent time in prison for child abuse and criminal sexual conduct.
According to WILX-TV, at the sentencing hearing, Lueth’s father, Roy Lueth, said he remembered when his daughter brought Cournaya home and he felt Cournaya "was a very unstable person."
Roy Lueth shared, "That day, I told her that the defendant was not someone she should be associated with and she needed to get away from him now."
Judge Joyce Draganchuk told Cournaya she did not want to give him the "time or worth of saying anything to you," but then added, "I did, however, contemplate trying to appeal to some sense of decency to say something to motivate you to reveal where Krista’s remains are, but I realize you have no empathy or decency. So I crossed that off the list."
Draganchuk continued, "I also considered playing on your conscience in telling you that I hope every single time you close your eyes, you see Krista’s face. But then I reminded myself that you have no conscience. Furthermore, you do not deserve to see Krista’s face. You don’t deserve to have any part of Krista with you. In the end, I decided that there really is nothing I can say to you."
Draganchuk told Krista Lueth’s family and loved ones she is "always with you, regardless."
Her disappearance became a homicide case in 2009.
WLNS-TV reports Lueth disappeared in November 2008, and investigators suspected from the beginning that Cournaya had killed her. Detectives reportedly discovered her license and broken cellphone on US-127 close to where Cournaya’s car broke down. Cournaya was charged with murder in 2021.
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