Man who raped dying woman, then texted photos of her, gets less than 3 years

A Washington state man in February texted to his friends pictures of a partially naked woman on his bed, according to police documents.

The man, Brian Varela, said in the texts that he believed that the woman was overdosing but bragged that he had had sex with her and that he could do so again. Varela, who was 19 at the time, then started to play a video game and fell asleep. When he woke up, the woman, Alyssa Noceda, 18, was dead.

On Thursday, Varela was sentenced to about three years in prison after he had pleaded guilty to felony charges that included second-degree manslaughter and third-degree rape.

The 34-month sentence was seen by members of Noceda’s family and others as woefully inadequate and drew sharp complaints.

The judge in the case, Linda C. Krese of Snohomish County Superior Court, expressed frustration with the state’s sentencing laws that she said restricted her from imposing a stiffer penalty, according to news reports and interviews. Krese said she was “surprised, even outraged,” The Daily Herald of Everett, Washington, reported.

“You’re never going to feel like you can adequately hold him accountable,” Toni Montgomery, who prosecuted the case, said Sunday.

Krese did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

“I’m sorry for my foolish actions,” Varela said in court, according to a video of the sentencing. “Whatever I get is what I deserve.”

Montgomery said Washington laws prescribe specific sentence ranges for certain crimes.

The manslaughter charge could have carried a sentence of 24 to 36 months, in part because Varela had no previous criminal convictions. The rape charge, and another charge that Varela pleaded guilty to — misdemeanor unlawful disposal of remains — carried shorter sentences, and they were all required to run concurrently, Montgomery said.

Krese said in court that she was “not sure the Legislature really contemplated something like this” when it crafted the sentencing laws.

Varela had initially been charged with first-degree manslaughter and second-degree rape, and a conviction on those charges could have produced a sentence of almost 10 1/2 years, Montgomery said.

But Montgomery said prosecutors opted for the plea deal because they did not think the first-degree charge would hold up. She said that is in part because Washington does not make it a crime in many cases for an individual to not get help for someone dying near them unless they are a parent, or the person dying is elderly, pregnant or a child.

It would have been harder to prove that Varela had a responsibility to try to keep Noceda alive, Montgomery said.

“It sort of is beyond the pale morally, when you think about it,” Montgomery said. “You can sit there and watch someone die and do nothing, and the law cannot hold you criminally accountable.”

Gina Pierson, Noceda’s mother, told KOMO News that the sentence was a “joke.”

“Usually people who do stuff like this don’t get away with a slap on the wrist,” Pierson said.

She could not be reached Sunday.

Varela’s lawyer, Paul Thompson, said in an email that most felony crimes have a specific range of punishment set under the state’s Sentencing Reform Act and that his client pleaded guilty to amended charges.

“I cannot comment further than that as to the sentencing other than to say that he was sentenced to the high end of the crimes for which he was actually convicted,” he said.

According to statements gathered by police, Noceda went to the trailer where Varela was living during the night of Feb. 3.

She told Varela she had brought Percocet, and crushed it up and snorted it, according to police. Tests later showed that the drugs contained fentanyl, a powerful opioid. Varela told police that he and Noceda had sex and then he gave her liquid THC, which she smoked before collapsing.

Varela woke up the next day and found Noceda dead. He locked her in his bedroom and went to work. When he returned that night, he washed her body to try to remove his DNA and redressed her before putting her in a plastic crate, according to police documents. He planned to pack it with onions to mask the odor, KOMO reported.

On Sunday, Varela was being held in the Snohomish County jail. He will be transferred to a state prison, Montgomery said.