{"id":23733,"date":"2016-05-26T11:37:55","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T18:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=23733"},"modified":"2016-05-26T11:37:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T18:37:55","slug":"ex-marine-sentenced-26-years-grisly-machete-murder-girlfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=23733","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Marine Sentenced to 26 Years for the Grisly Machete Murder of His Girlfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Just a few hours after murdering his girlfriend in Panama and chopping up her body with a machete, retired Marine Brian Karl Brimager<\/strong> sent an email to a friend: \u201cHey bro, whatcha up to? I got stories for days. I\u2019m living on an island off the coast of panama loving life and living semper free!!!!!!,” according officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"baldellicouple\"
Retired Marine Brian Karl Brimager and his former girlfriend Yvonne Baldelli<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few days later, after he\u2019d disposed of \u00a0Yvonne Baldelli’s<\/strong> body in the Panamanian jungle, Brimager accessed her bank account and used the money to buy rounds of drinks for female friends at a bar. \u201cThanks Vonnie,\u201d he announced, as he raised his glass in a toast, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

After returning to the United States, Brimager received an email from another friend who told him to say hello to Baldelli. In his reply, Brimager wrote that he\u2019d \u201cditched the bitch.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In a social media post about the sale of the machete he used to sever Baldelli\u2019s limbs, Brimager joked: \u201cI only dismembered one stripper with it \u2013 it\u2019s hardly used.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced the 40-year-old Brimager to 26 years in prison, ending a long and legally challenging FBI-led investigation and prosecution spanning thousands of miles, multiple countries and more than four years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe day of reckoning has come for Brian Brimager,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy. \u201cNot only did he show a callous disregard for Yvonne Baldelli\u2019s life by viciously beating, stabbing, dismembering and dumping her in the jungle, but his words and actions in the hours, days and months following his horrendous crime exhibited an extreme lack of remorse. He stole a precious daughter, sister, aunt and friend, and now he is paying the price.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric S. Birnbaum said: \u201cI commend the professionalism and dedication of our international law enforcement partners, the prosecutors and the FBI agents here in San Diego and Panama who worked tirelessly to obtain justice for Yvonne Baldelli.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge Miller also ordered Brimager to pay $11,132 in restitution to Baldelli\u2019s father and a $10,000 fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutors argued that the circumstances of the crime \u2013 including mutilation of the body and Brimager\u2019s multiple attempts to convince Baldelli\u2019s family that she was still alive – amounted to \u201cextreme conduct,\u201d a legal term of art that merits an enhanced sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prosecutors told the court at Tuesday’s hearing that eight witnesses in Panama related separate incidents to the FBI in which they saw Brimager beating, punching, choking and threatening to kill Baldelli.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the 220-pound ex-Marine killed the 110-pound Baldelli on November 27, 2011, the evidence showed that he broke her teeth and nose and stabbed her multiple times before dragging her lifeless body to the shower, where he mutilated her.<\/span><\/p>\n

Judge Miller agreed that these actions amounted to extreme conduct and handed down a sentence that is stronger than a typical second-degree murder term.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis murder was particularly cruel and depraved,\u201d U.S. District Judge Jeffrey T. Miller said. \u201cThe lengths Mr. Brimager went to to avoid detection were particularly brazen and ultimately shattering to the Bardelli family. I dare say they will never recover. A day may never go by without them thinking of Ms. Baldelli\u2019s murder and the images seared in to their psyches.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During the hearing, nine members of Baldelli\u2019s family, including her parents, sister, nieces and closest friends, told the court how they have suffered emotionally and physically because of the loss, the way in which she was killed, and the torture of not knowing her whereabouts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some described in wrenching detail their search for her body in the muddy spider-infested swamps of the Panamanian jungle \u2013 too afraid to find her, too afraid not to.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the court hearing, Brimager faced family members seated in the gallery and said he was sorry. But the family wasn\u2019t receptive. \u201cDon\u2019t look at us!\u201d someone fired back. \u201cSure,\u201d scoffed another, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

During her victim impact statement before the court, Michelle Faust<\/strong>, Baldelli\u2019s sister, said: \u201cToday we got an apology \u2013 a hollow last-minute attempt to save himself. Last night we talked about forgiveness. But forgiveness is for those who repent, not for those who cover their crimes, not for those who confess only when their back\u2019s against the wall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to sentencing documents, after dismembering her body, Brimager stuffed her torso into a military duffle bag and shoved her lower limbs into garbage bags.<\/span><\/p>\n

He then hiked approximately 1.5 miles to the other side of the island where he threw the duffle bag and garbage bags down an embankment into the remote Panamanian jungle — where they remained for 21 months until a local Panamanian stumbled onto the duffle bag containing her skeletonized remains.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brimager pleaded guilty on Feb. 24\u00a0to Foreign Murder of a United States National.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his guilty plea, Brimager also admitted that he obstructed the investigation into her murder by destroying, concealing and disposing of evidence, including a blood-stained mattress, clothes and jewelry;\u00a0 killed Baldelli\u2019s two dogs; accessed Baldelli\u2019s email account after her murder and impersonated Baldelli in emails sent from her account to friends and family; withdrew money from Baldelli\u2019s bank account in Costa Rica after her death; and provided false statements to an FBI agent \u2013 all in an attempt to make it seem as though Baldelli were alive and well and traveling with another man in Costa Rica.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brimager has been in custody since June 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Conover told the court that Brimager killed Baldelli in order to silence her.<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019d discovered that Brimager had a girlfriend and daughter in San Diego. Baldelli could\u2019ve ruined it for Brimager by revealing their relationship to the girlfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n

Within two weeks of returning to San Diego after Baldelli\u2019s murder, Brimager married the girlfriend.<\/span><\/p>\n

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(Two NBC TV News Videos About the Case)<\/p>\n