Ex-boyfriend denies killing Holly Springs mother as he testifies in his murder trial
Update: Sluss was found guilty of first-degree murder involving domestic violence. For details on the verdict, see this story.
Taking the stand in his murder trial, Brian Sluss testified Wednesday that he did not kill his ex-girlfriend, Monica Moynan, the mother of their two children.
Sluss, 46, agreed with his attorney to testify Wednesday morning in Wake County Superior Court, a day after the prosecution mounted several pieces of evidence against him with expert witnesses.
He is charged with the murder of Moynan, known as “Moni” to family and friends, after she was reported missing in July 2019.
Moynan was 23 and living with Sluss in Holly Springs when she was last seen in April that year. Her body has never been found, but investigators have said they had enough evidence to file murder charges against Sluss.
Tommy Manning, Sluss’ attorney, asked him if he denied “strangling (Moynan) to death, beating her and killing her.” Sluss replied “Yes, sir.”
Closing arguments are expected to begin Thursday morning.
The defense has argued that Moynan was an “absent” mother who “walked out on him and his girls,” Manning said.
As the father of two young daughters he shared with Moynan, Sluss defended himself Wednesday as a present father who provided for his family.
Sluss struggled to confirm exact dates in his testimony. He detailed his history of unstable jobs and housing, as well as of selling stolen retail goods on Facebook, Craigslist and other sites to make ends meet.
When disputing that he killed Moynan, he said that around April 7, the date in which the prosecution believes she was killed, she had been “out partying” while he was at home taking care of the children.
He claimed that Moynan disappeared around Father’s Day — June 16 — that year, saying he saw her at night and she told him, “I just can’t do this right now.” She was carrying a “satchel,” and he said he watched her leave the home and then saw a dark car drive away.
He said he never saw her again and was surprised that she left behind left her phone and wallet.
“I never thought that she would not come back,” he stated.
He told the prosecution that he has “no clue” where she is now when prosecutor Kathryn Pomeroy, a Wake County Assistant District Attorney, asked where her body was.
During the investigation, Sluss was a “person of interest,” later being named as a suspect in her disappearance and death, a Holly Springs police spokesman told The News & Observer in early 2020.
Britny’s Law charges
Sluss faces charges of first-degree murder involving domestic violence.
The first charge stems from Britny’s Law, signed by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2017, which makes it easier for prosecutors to file first-degree murder charges if a defendant is accused of killing their significant other.
Under Britny’s Law, murder charges can be filed against a person with a prior conviction of domestic violence against the same victim to prove premeditation and deliberation in a killing.
Moynan filed a protective order against Sluss in 2017 after they had broken up, The News & Observer previously reported.
Since the law was enacted, no murder case in North Carolina has used provisions of that law.
The law is named for Britny Puryear, a 22-year-old woman who was killed by her boyfriend in 2014 in their Fuquay-Varina apartment following an abusive relationship.
What the prosecution said
Sluss was cross-examined by Pomeroy, who called into question his morals as a father, his judgment, his relationship decisions and the truth of his statements.
The N&O previously reported that Sluss gave four conflicting statements of Moynan’s whereabouts when questioned during the initial investigation, including that she had become addicted to drugs and was in “home rehab” and that she also had run away.
Pomeroy repeatedly pointed out inconsistencies in his statements and asked him about documented instances of domestic violence against Moynan, for which he was charged and previously convicted.
“At no point in time (did) I actually strangle Monica,” said Sluss.
“So, Monica made that up?” asked Pomeroy.
“Yes, she did,” Sluss replied.
In one of the few instances in which Pomeroy walked up to Sluss, she showed him a magistrate’s order that contradicted his claim that he had never struck Monica in the face in 2017.
For over an hour Wednesday, Sluss also was asked whether he had used Moynan’s phone and social media accounts after her disappearance to make friends and family believe she was still alive. He confirmed that he had.
In 2016, Sluss also created a fake Facebook account for a made-up woman who he exchanged sexually suggestive messages with from his own account in order to make Moynan jealous, according to the prosecution.
He denied several accusations by the prosecution, but in some moments, admitted to lying, including to a law enforcement officer.
The prosecution also argued that Sluss exhibited abusive and sexually predatory behavior, asking him if he knew what the term “grooming” meant.
Investigators found that Moynan had been researching on her phone the terms sexually predatory behavior and grooming.
During the prosecution’s questioning, Sluss confirmed that he had met Moynan at a previous job when she was 17 and when he was around 37 years old. He also confirmed that he was 31 and his ex-wife Jarlyn Sluss was 17 when they met.
He said he lied to both women about his age.
Moynan became pregnant with their first daughter three months after moving in with him when she was 18 years old, he said.
Jarlyn Sluss was charged May 12, 2020, in connection with Moynan’s death. She was charged with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and obstruction of justice for allegedly helping Sluss by pretending to be Moynan on the phone to fool an apartment manager.
Sluss drew gasps and sobs in the courtroom on Tuesday when evidence presented against him included nanny cam videos in which he scolded his then 4-year-old daughter, then punched her several times.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 5:05 PM.
