FILE – Ayoola Ajayi, accused in the June killing of University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck, appears in 3rd District Court, Friday, Dec. 20, 2019 in Salt Lake City. Ajayi, a man accused of killing a Utah college student was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges he sexually assaulted another woman he met on a dating site more than a year before the slaying. (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret News via AP)
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A tech worker accused of killing a Utah college student pleaded not guilty Thursday to 19 unrelated counts filed after investigators said they discovered child pornography on his computer.
A judge entered the pleas to sexual exploitation of a minor charges on behalf of Ayoola Ajayi, 32, who is also facing separate murder and kidnapping charges in the death of 23-year-old University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck. She is originally from El Segundo, California,
The images of children as young as 4 were allegedly found during the investigation in to Lueck’s death, but have not been linked with her slaying.
Police have said Lueck was last seen getting into Ajayi’s car in June 2019, shortly before her death. Her body was found with her arms bound behind her in Logan Canyon 85 miles (138 kilometers) from Ajayi’s home in Salt Lake City. She died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Authorities have not said how they knew each other.
Ajayi was an information technology worker who had stints with high-profile companies and was briefly in the Army National Guard.
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