A Utah man who enabled and filmed the suicide of a 16-year-old girl has been sent to prison.
“I’m hoping, although I don’t deserve it, the victim’s family will be able to forgive me for my immature and thoughtless and rash decisions,” 19-year-old Tyerell Przybycien said in court Friday, according to the Deseret News. “What I did, I’m not proud.”
Fourth District Judge James Brady sentenced Przybycien to five years to life for child abuse homicide in Jchandra Brown’s 2017 death.
The Spanish Fork man also received a five-year sentence for sexual exploitation of a minor for having child pornography on a cellphone police searched after his arrest. The Utah Valley Daily Herald, citing court documents, reported that the photos were of “girls under 5 years old.”
The two sentences will run concurrently, Brady said, and Przybycien will be credited for time served, meaning he could be released as early as 2022.
“I would like to see him be there forever, I’m not going to lie,” Brown’s mother, Sue Bryan, told the Gephardt Daily after the hearing. “I can’t describe the pain of losing a child. There are no words. I died when she died.”
Przybycien pleaded guilty to the charges in October after entering into a plea deal with prosecutors that allowed him to avoid a possible first-degree felony murder conviction.
“I think it was more on the good side for us,” Przybycien’s mother, Brittany Johnson, told Salt Lake City’s KUTV News outside the courthouse on Friday. “He wants to get help, he wants to get educated, he’s matured.”
On May 6, 2017, hunters found Brown’s body hanging from a tree in a canyon about 25 miles south of Provo. A can of industrial strength air duster and two plastic bags were found near the tree.
One of the bags had a note that identified Brown and instructed investigators to watch a video on her cellphone, also found at the scene.
According to the police report, the video showed “the victim with a noose around her neck” as she stood on a rock. She then inhaled the contents of the air duster can, lost consciousness, and fell off the rock, causing the noose to tighten around her neck, police said.
Investigators were working the crime scene when Przybycien approached an officer and said he knew Brown and was with her when she died.
“He expressed to detectives he had a fascination with death and wanted to see what it was like to watch somebody die,” Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon told HuffPost.
Przybycien not only acknowledged filming Brown’s death but also admitted to purchasing the air duster and rope before driving her to the location and helping her tie the noose.
“He did absolutely nothing proactive to prevent her from doing this,” Cannon said.
Cops said that in addition to child pornography, they found chilling text messages on Przybycien’s phone that he sent to a friend in the weeks leading up to Brown’s death.
“What you do if you knew a friend was trying to commit suicide,” he asked in a text message. When the friend texted back, “Talk them out of it,” authorities said Przybycien replied:
“The thing is i wanna help kill them. it be awesome. seriously im going to help her. Its like getting away with murder! Im so fucked up. I’m seriously not joking. Its going down in about a week or two.”
Authorities said that after Brown died, Przybycien sent another text message to a friend:
“Bro it happened. I helped her do it too and I feel so guilty.”
Brown’s mother held a photo of her daughter in her arms when she spoke with reporters on Friday.
“I’m still overwhelmed,” she told KUTV News. “I am missing my daughter. Like I said in the courtroom, there is really is no true justice, because only true justice would be having my daughter back in my arms.”
If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741-741 for free, 24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.
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