Former Central Oregon Community College security officer Edwin Lara pleaded guilty on Monday in Deschutes County Circuit Court to murdering Kaylee Sawyer in 2016 in Bend.

In his plea, he admitted to holding Sawyer in the back of his security vehicle, where he strangled her then killed her by crushing her head with a large rock.

Friends, relatives and co-workers of Sawyer were in attendance. Several offered statements.

Sawyer’s mother, Juli Walden VanCleave, was the first to speak.

“Kaylee Anne Sawyer is my first-born. The moment I first held her, I understood what love at first sight was. She was an amazing daughter, big sister, granddaughter and friend. She touched so many in her short life, and continues to live on in all the memories that are shared. Kaylee had goals. She had dreams. She had the right to live a long and happy life. Kaylee will not be forgotten.

“To the defendant, you have lived your life being a fake, a coward and a failure. In your mind you tried to be a decent person and a police officer. But in your life, you are not even qualified to be a campus security officer.

“Your mom will forever be the mother of a rapist and a murderer.”

“I hope you rot in hell, scumbag,” said Sawyer’s maternal grandfather, Jim Walden.

The plea and sentencing hearing resumed at 1:30 p.m., when more people were expected to provide statements to the court.

The plea deal was the result of “extensive” negotiations between the state and Lara’s attorneys, Judge A. Michael Adler said. In the end, Lara pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated murder and robbery in exchange for a life sentence without parole. He was promised the state would not pursue the death penalty.

In the early morning of July 24, 2016, Sawyer, 23, was walking near her apartment on the campus of Central Oregon Community College, which she attended as a student. She encountered Lara, who was dressed in a law enforcement-style uniform and driving a dark patrol vehicle with a plexiglass cage separating the front and back seats and auto-locking doors.

A lawsuit filed by the family against COCC states Lara recognized Sawyer was intoxicated and propositioned her for sex. When she refused, he strangled her to the point of unconsciousness, drove to a secluded spot on campus where he sexually assaulted her and, ultimately, crushed her head with a large rock, according to the lawsuit. Lara is accused of committing a variety of other offenses on a two-day flight from the law that ended on the side of a Northern California highway after a high-speed chase.

Lara was charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering Sawyer.

Relatives expressed resentment Lara hadn’t admitted to sexually abusing Sawyer.

The charge of robbery comes from Lara demanding and taking Sawyer’s purse when she was locked in the back of the campus security vehicle.

“Robbery — because he took a green purse?” said Walden, her grandfather. “Kaylee fought for her life, her dignity, not for a green purse. Robbery, well, that’s partly true. That scumbag robbed our Kaylee of many things. He robbed her of ever being whatever she wanted to be … He robbed her of her life. So yeah, I guess ‘robbery’ somehow fits.”

At the time of her death, Sawyer worked at Awbrey Dental Group. She had hoped to become a dentist, relatives said.

Naomi Sanzone, Sawyer’s best friend, said she no longer desires to have children because she now knows “monsters exist.”

“Not only did I lose her, I lost a part of myself,” Sanzone said. “I don’t remember what it feels like to truly happy anymore.”

Several of Sawyer’s family members told the court they’d administer the death penalty personally if given the chance.

Family friend Doug Gray described a graphic scenario in which he would take Lara to the desert, where the “eagles and the coyotes and the maggots will eat (him) alive.”

Lara, 32, wore a dark suit, a trim beard and slicked-back hair. He stared ahead during much of the testimony, which included the recording of a song written by a friend in tribute of Sawyer.

Attorneys and investigators working the case were limited by a gag order from publicly discussing it. Monday’s sentencing hearing was the first time several details of the killing have been made public.

Lara has charges pending in Siskiyou County, California, related to his crime spree and flight from police.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com