ATLANTA -- The Georgia Department of Corrections says a 20-year-old maintenance worker who this week pleaded guilty to molesting and killing a 7-year-old girl has been found dead of an apparent suicide in his prison cell.
Corrections spokeswoman Kristen Stancil says Ryan Brunn was found unresponsive at 4:15 p.m. Thursday. Brunn was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 5:37 p.m.
Brunn pleaded guilty Tuesday to the Dec. 2 beating and stabbing death of Jorelys Rivera.
Brunn detailed for the court how he killed her and put her body in a trash compactor at the apartment complex where she lived and he worked.
At the hearing, Brunn apologized to Rivera's family before a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole.