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Man Pleads Guilty To Raping, Murdering 6-Year-Old Neighbor
In 2014, Jenise Wright's body was discovered in a muddy bog.
A 21-year-old Washington man pleaded guilty Friday for the 2014 rape and killing of 6 year-old child, Jenise Wright.
Gabriel Gaeta, of Bremerton, was only 17 years old at the time, but was charged as an adult due to the severity of his crimes. Although authorities arrested Gaeta in August of 2014, he was found incompetent to stand trial at the time, according to CBS News reported.
He has since received medical treatment for his mental health at Western State Hospital.
Gaeta faces a minimum 40-year sentence.
When Wright was reported missing, hundreds of law enforcement officers and others searched for her remains. An FBI team with search dogs discovered her body under a wood pallet submerged in a muddy bog.
DNA evidence from the child’s body was linked to Gaeta, a family friend of the Wrights, who at the time was a high school without any prior charges or criminal background. Law enforcement found blood and mud covered clothing in his bedroom, and he lived only two homes away from the entry to the wodded trail where the child's remains were found.
Wright was sexually assault and strangled and suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
Gaeta is scheduled to be sentenced on May 21, according to The Seattle Times.
[Photo: Twitter]
