Zachary Todd Anderson will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty Friday to sexually assaulting and murdering 5-year-old Alayna Ertl of Watkins in August 2016.
The 27-year-old Coon Rapids man pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.
After entering his guilty plea during a pre-trial hearing in Cass County District Court in Walker, Anderson was given the mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
In admitting his guilt, Anderson described the details of the crime in court as family members and authorities listened on, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Anderson was indicted by a grand jury in October 2016 for the death of Ertl. In October, he pleaded not guilty to all 19 criminal charges, which include first-degree murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct, felony kidnapping and interfering with a dead body.
Anderson has been in custody in the Crow Wing County Jail in Brainerd but will now move to a state prison to carry out his life sentence.
Alayna’s parents, Matt and Kayla Ertl, discovered her missing on the morning of Aug. 20, 2016. They told investigators with the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office that Anderson had spent the night at their home and neither he nor Alayna could be found the following morning. Anderson and a GMC Sierra pickup truck owned by Matt Ertl also was missing.
An Amber Alert was issued that afternoon. Later that day, investigators found Alayna’s body submerged in water in a swampy area near a cabin in Cass County.
Investigators found Anderson standing knee-deep in a swamp, his left wrist cut, on the same property Alayna’s body was found, according to court documents. When asked where “the girl” was, Anderson initially said “What girl?” But later, when speaking to investigators from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Anderson told them Ertl was hidden in the swamp under brush and debris, and he led officers to her body.
An autopsy determined Alayna Ertl died from strangulation and had suffered blunt force trauma to the head. Evidence of sexual assault was also revealed in the forensic examination.
