Cedar Rapids man sentenced to 25 years for sex abuse of 11-year-old girl

CEDAR RAPIDS — A teenage girl told a judge Tuesday she was trying to get past the pain and trauma she endured for months of being sexually abused by Bryan Brady Ruiz.

The teen, looking down and speaking softly and barely audible in the courtroom, said she had nightmares and night sweats for the past four years. She now is living in foster care and has seen “a lot of therapists. I have trust issues.”

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Sixth Judicial District Judge Kevin McKeever sentenced Ruiz, 28, of Cedar Rapids, who pleaded in October to second-degree sexual abuse, to 25 years in prison with a mandatory 17 years to be served before being eligible for parole.

Ruiz was also ordered to serve a special sentence of parole and comply with the requirements of the sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

McKeever also put in place a no-contact order to protect the victim for five years.

The other charges against Ruiz — one count of second-degree sexual abuse, enticing a child under age 13 for sexual abuse or exploitation, lascivious acts with a child, indecent exposure and dissemination and exhibition of obscene material to a minor — were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Monica Slaughter said during the sentencing she doesn’t usually say much beyond making a recommendation when there’s a mandatory sentence — but in this case, she was going to say more.

Slaughter said Ruiz was a neighbor in a four-plex building where the victim’s family lived and was able to have information about her family life, which he used to groom the then-11-year-old girl over the course of months in 2020.

Ruiz would have the girl’s mother babysit his infant son while his wife was gone so he could be alone with the 11-year-old, Slaughter said. He would then make arrangements to meet the child in the common basement area of the building.

He preyed upon the vulnerable girl and even convinced her at some point to not call her parents by “mom” and “dad,” Slaughter said.

“He sent 800 pages, not 800 emails, but exchanged 800 pages of emails with the girl through her school email account,” Slaughter said. “He instructed her to delete those messages so he wouldn’t get (arrested).”

Ruiz also asked her to send nude photos of her herself to him and he sent her nude photos of himself.

At some point, Ruiz’s attention switched to focus on the girl’s 9-year-old sibling. He asked the girl to help him have a relationship with her, Slaughter said.

The victim’s trauma also made her vulnerable to Ruiz’s brother, Marcus Clyde Ruiz, 29, who also sexually abused her in 2022. He was convicted in August.

Slaughter said the child did everything she was supposed to do. She reported the abuse, went through a forensic interview and a physical exam and provided a deposition.

Ruiz then filed a lawsuit against the child, claiming she was lying. But he was unable to intimidate her, Slaughter said — instead he “feared the child, what she was going to say.”

He made the plea deal just before this trial was set to start, Slaughter said. He made an Alford plea — in which a defendant does not admit guilt but concedes the prosecution has enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt — which “shows how little remorse he has for the amount of damage he caused” to the child, Slaughter said.

Ruiz declined to make a statement during the sentencing.

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