Despite a motion challenging the composition of the Cherokee County Grand Jury sworn to serve the January term, Ryan McCabe Brunn, a 20-year-old former River Ridge apartment maintenance worker charged with the murder of a 7-year-old Canton girl, was indicted last week.
A Superior Court judge denied the defense’s objection to the Grand Jury Jan. 10, one day after it indicted Brunn on the 13 charges. He pleaded guilty to all the charges Jan. 17 (see related article in Top Stories).
Originally facing a murder and false statement charge, Brunn was indicted on several additional charges, including aggravated child molestation, aggravated assault and battery, as well as enticing a child for indecent purposes, false imprisonment, sexual exploitation of a child and abandonment of a dead body.
The sexual exploitation charge stems from “material” depicting a female minor in “sexually explicit conduct,” the indictment states.
A multi-agency task force, which included Canton police, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, GBI, FBI, Georgia State Patrol, the Cherokee District Attorney’s Office and the Child Abduction Response Team, arrested Brunn Dec. 7.
He was charged with the murder of Jorelys Rivera, who vanished from the playground in the River Ridge apartment complex, where she lived with her family, around 5 p.m., Dec. 2. Police were dispatched to the scene at 7:15 p.m. that night, following a call to E-911 just three minutes earlier.
Law enforcement authorities upgraded the case status from missing to child abduction by 3:15 p.m., Dec. 3.
According to the indictment, authorities believe Brunn lured Jorelys into the vacant apartment in Building 10000 for the purpose of molesting her.
The child’s body was discovered in the apartment’s trash compact Dumpster around 12:30 p.m., Dec. 5. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy conducted by the GBI’s Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kris Sperry revealed that the child died from blunt force trauma to the head. She reportedly also was stabbed, severely beaten and sexually assaulted.
According to the indictment handed down Monday, Brunn is accused of striking Jorelys on her head and face with a blunt hammer-like object.
Brunn also is accused of inflicting severe wounds, as the indictment said the child was cut in the neck, face and chest.
The indictment also charges Brunn with two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, as he allegedly “maliciously” bound the child’s hands with plastic ties, as well as placed a rag into the girl’s mouth and covered it with duct tape.
Brunn’s family has maintained, since his arrest, that he’s innocent.
