By Rich Phillips, Holly Firfer and Gustavo Valdes, CNN

December 8, 2011

Did suspect search for murdered girl?

Canton, Georgia (CNN) -- Ryan Brunn, the suspect in the slaying of a 7-year-old Georgia girl who lived in the apartment complex where he worked, wore a bullet-proof vest during his first court appearance Thursday.
Brunn entered the Cherokee County Superior Court wearing an orange
jumpsuit and a tan bullet-proof vest. His hands were shackled during the court appearance, which lasted only a few minutes.
Authorities arrested the 20-year-old maintenance worker Wednesday afternoon and have charged him with killing Jorelys Rivera, who was last seen alive Friday near a playground at the apartment complex in Canton. Investigators found her body in a trash compactor there three days later.
Brunn is in segregated confinement in prison and wore a bullet-proof vest due to the nature of the case, said Lt. Jay Baker, a spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
"It's been a hot issue in the community. We didn't want to take any chances," Baker told reporters.
After Judge Frank Mills read him his rights, Brunn said he understood what he was being charged with and was satisfied with his counsel

Defense attorney Daran Burns told reporters that his client was "very shaken."
"We're investigating our case. It's obviously a very tragic case. It's a very serious case. We take it very seriously. Just give us time to do our jobs," he said.
Thursday's court appearance came after the little girl's mother called for capital punishment for the suspect.
"I don't want any charges brought against him," Joseline Rivera told CNN affiliate WSB. "What I want is the death penalty. He's an animal. He killed my little angel."
While Brunn has not made a public statement, his adopted brother said he would never do such a thing.
Authorities said Brunn has been assigned two public defenders. CNN's calls to both were not immediately returned.
The warrant for Brunn's arrest charged him with murder and making false statements to law enforcement.
"The accused did unlawfully and with malice aforethought cause the death of Jorelys Rivera by hitting her on the head with a blunt object," it said.
Authorities have said there will likely be other charges, including kidnapping and sexual molestation.
The little girl's father, Ricardo Galarza, lives in Puerto Rico. He told CNN on Thursday that he last saw his daughter two years ago when she visited for the summer. She was supposed to visit for Christmas this year, Galarza said.
He echoed Rivera's call for the death penalty.

Brunn brother: 'This is all bogus'

Arrest made in 7-year-old girl's killing

Meanwhile, a judge ruled that Joseline Rivera's two younger children -- Jorelys' half-siblings -- could return to the custody of family members, attorney John Connley told reporters.
Authorities took away the two children, ages 4 and 1, on Saturday, a day after Jorelys went missing. The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services cited lack of supervision. Connley, who represents the children's father, did not specify which parent would have custody.
Joseline Rivera went to court Monday to try to get the kids back, but was denied.
A family friend said the father of the two younger children lives in Miami.
At the apartment complex in Canton, about 40 miles north of Atlanta, neighbors were still in shock over the killing.
Kelly Knight told HLN that she had not seen Brunn very often, "but the few times I did he struck me as very strange."

When police took Brunn away, a crowd had gathered and was shouting at him.
"I heard someone call him a scumbucket, a monster," Knight said.
Authorities said Brunn has no known criminal history.
His adopted brother, Connor, told CNN affiliate WXIA-TV that the arrest was a "big mistake."
"I honestly think he is innocent. There's just no way he would do something like this. He's just a kind-hearted person," Connor Brunn said.
He has spoken with Ryan, he said, who told him "he wouldn't touch a girl like that."
"He wouldn't ever do something like that. ... This is just all bogus. ... He knew that he was suspected but he never, like, thought that it would go to him. He was asked to help to go look for this little girl. And then he got brought into this," Connor Brunn said.
On what friends say is Ryan Brunn's Facebook page, he described himself as being "very outgoing" and having "a 'wonderful' life, family, and friends."

In July, he posted a message slamming Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of killing her daughter in Florida. He wrote that Casey Anthony should have died, "but really she'll get hers."
Tips from the public led investigators to Brunn, who had been working at the complex since November 7, authorities said.
"We believe that this horrendous crime was planned and calculated," Vernon Keenan, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told reporters.
Jorelys was abducted "in the immediate vicinity" of the apartment complex's playground, then taken to an empty apartment nearby, Keenan said.
Investigators found blood in the empty apartment, he said.
"We have evidence that the murder occurred in that vacant apartment," he said. "At some point, the child's body was then disposed of in the Dumpster and compacted into trash."
Authorities have said Jorelys died of blunt force trauma to the head, was stabbed and had been sexually assaulted.

Neighbor Heather Johnson-Coker said residents were suspicious of Brunn after investigators found Jorelys' body in the trash compactor, which can only be operated with a key that employees at the complex have.
She said the maintenance worker had mentioned the large number of vacant apartments in the complex when a boy from the area went missing for a few hours recently.
"He said, and I quote, 'It would be really easy for someone to break in and do something to one of these children,'" Johnson-Coker said Wednesday.

"I did talk to him on a daily basis, and he seemed like a relatively nice guy. He wasn't socially awkward. He didn't seem to have any type of anger issue. He seemed like a regular, decent person who worked there to make a living just like anybody else," she said. "The statement at the time did not shock me. I did not think anything odd about it."
But Johnson-Coker said she told investigators about the conversation after investigators found Jorelys' body.
Days earlier, the maintenance worker was in a search party with her husband after Jorelys went missing.
"They were together searching not 5 feet from each other, and it just turns my stomach thinking about it," she said.
Connor Brunn said investigators should have focused on the complex's other maintenance workers, who also had access to the trash compactor, instead of his brother.
"I think they were looking at him because he was one of the maintenance guys there," he said. "But he's just one out of what, four or five other maintenance guys that work there?"
Brunn was one of hundreds of people investigators interviewed in their search for suspects, Keenan said Wednesday.

"We're confident that Brunn is a killer," Keenan said, but he added that the investigation will continue for months.
"We are investigating all of the past history of Ryan Brunn and piecing together what he's been doing the last several years," he added. "We have sent agents to other states and also to other counties and we're going to backtrack all of his activities and make a determination if he has been involved in other crimes. He has no known criminal history to us, but we will find out."
On Facebook, Brunn recently talked of plans to move to Canton.
"New job,apt,life coming soon," an October 6 post said. A post on November 5 said, "Today is moving day! Not ready to go but i got to."