Clay sentenced to life in Chelsea Bruck’s death

Monroe — A man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for killing a woman after a 2014 Halloween party in southeast Michigan and stashing her body in the woods.

Daniel Clay apologized in court. A jury in May convicted him of first-degree murder in the beating death of Chelsea Bruck.

“I made a mistake,” Clay told the victim’s mother, Leanndra Bruck, at his sentencing. “I know I caused pain to the family and to the community. I am truly sorry. I am sorry for what I put you through.”

Chelsea Bruck, 22, who was from Maybee, disappeared after attending the party with hundreds of people in Monroe County’s Frenchtown Township. Her body was found six months later.

She was dressed as the comic villain Poison Ivy at the party. DNA on her costume led investigators to Clay in 2016.

Clay had contended the death was accidental and occurred during aggressive sex in his car. But Monroe County Circuit Judge Daniel White said Clay was not believable.

“You’re a liar, a rapist and a killer,” White told Clay on Thursday.

Leanndra Bruck, who spoke at the sentencing and gave Clay a Bible, said: “Today, with the strength from Jesus Christ, I forgive Daniel Clay. I do not want my Lord to ask why I could not offer forgiveness to Mr. Clay.”

At a news conference Thursday, Michael Roehrig, chief assistant prosecutor in the Monroe County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said: “Today, 990 days after murdering Chelsea and concealing her body in those woods, I will again agree with one statement the defendant made, he is a monster.”

He said Clay’s sentence to life without parole “brings a small measure of human justice for Chelsea, for her family and for the community.”

Chelsea's mother referred to her faith and the support from the community at the news conference Thursday.

“A very important lesson, from the loss of Chelsea: Don’t leave your friends alone,” she said. “If you go somewhere, anywhere as a group, please leave as that same group. Don’t assume that they’re going to be OK. We still expect her to walk in the back door.”

Bruck said a scholarship in Chelsea’s name will be awarded to a student in the culinary arts program at Macomb Community College because Chelsea had wanted to get a degree in culinary arts.

Detroit News Staff Writer Sarah Rahal contributed to this report.