Angel Vause admits to lying about Drexel drug use in federal plea deal, faces up to 24 years in prison

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WBTW) — For more than a decade, Brittanee Drexel’s killer and his longtime girlfriend insisted the 17-year-old willingly got into their car for a night of drug use — a key claim that warded off abduction charges as the investigation into her eventual murder developed.

On Monday, Angel Vause finally admitted — for the first time — that the April 25, 2009, mutual encounter was a lie — blowing up a tightly woven cover story and clearing the Rochester, New York teen’s reputation.

Vause, 56, could be headed to prison for more than two decades after admitting on Monday that she lied to the FBI multiple times during their investigation into the teenager’s death. She pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court’s Charleston division to three counts of making a false statement to federal agents.

A sentencing date was not immediately known.

It’s the latest development in a case that began in March when Vause was indicted. Her boyfriend Raymond Moody is serving a life sentence after confessing in 2022 to raping and murdering Drexel while she was on spring break in Myrtle Beach.

Vause agreed in July to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Charleston to two counts of making false statements to federal agents — each carrying a penalty of five years’ imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

But on Aug. 15 — the planned date of her sentencing — both sides agreed to a 10-day continuance after the penalty was upgraded to a maximum of eight years for each count.

“In light of Ms. Vause’s rejection of the plea, we’re currently preparing for trial and considering all our options … Those options include potentially seeking a superseding indictment to include a federal kidnapping charge,” First United States Attorney Brook B. Andrews told News13 at the time.

Veronica Hill, a U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman, said Vause wasn’t given a chance to separate her pleas this time.

“After he last plea attempt fell through, the parties abandoned the plea agreement. She has now pleaded ‘straight up’ to the indictment, which means she admitted guilt on all the charges without any of the benefits or obligations of a formal plea agreement,” she said.

The prior plea agreement would only have required her to plead guilty to two counts (counts one and three, specifically) in the indictment.  However, after her last plea attempt fell through, the parties abandoned the plea agreement.  She has now pleaded “straight up” to the indictment, which means she has admitted guilt on all the charges without any of the benefits or obligations of a formal plea agreement.

The three-page indictment shows that in May 2022, Vause told an FBI agent that she had gone home to get keys from a truck ring while Drexel was being assaulted and killed. However, the indictments say Vause was actually going somewhere else for a different reason.

The indictment also alleges that Vause told the FBI that Drexel had her cell phone the entire time when it was proven that Vause had possession of Drexel’s phone and disposed of it somewhere between Georgetown and Charleston.

Vause long insisted that on April 25, 2009, Drexel voluntarily joined her and Moody to consume marijuana and cocaine as a cover story regarding her kidnapping, but for the first time on Monday admitted that was a lie.

Prosecutors said Vause played a critical role in forcing Moody’s confession because they initially built a case against her before he claimed responsibility.

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