LIHU’E – A shackled and manacled Gregory Aguiar, 50, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder Thursday morning in a Fifth Circuit courtroom. Authorities say Aguiar set his wife, Muilan Aguiar, 40, afire at their Ele`ele home after a domestic dispute
LIHU’E – A shackled and manacled Gregory Aguiar, 50, pleaded no contest to
second-degree murder Thursday morning in a Fifth Circuit
courtroom.
Authorities say Aguiar set his wife, Muilan Aguiar, 40, afire at
their Ele`ele home after a domestic dispute March 12. She died three weeks
later in an Oahu hospital.
Judge Clifford Nakea asked Aguiar yesterday if
he understood that the criminal charge he was pleading to carried a mandatory
sentence of life in prison.
Aguiar mumbled in the
affirmative.
Throughout the proceedings, the defendant – his previously
long, unruly hair cut into a modified Beatles hairstyle – kept his eyes down
and avoided a close look at the first two rows of the courtroom, filled with
friends and relatives of the victim.
Kaua`i County Prosecuting Attorney
Mike Soong reminded the judge that the sentence Aguiar was agreeing to was
“life with the possibility of parole but no absolute right to
parole.”
Afterward, Soong amplified his courtroom comments.
“For us,
the considerations were the defense would probably seek a (reduced)
manslaughter charge. Another consideration was that this (plea) means he’s
convicted of nothing less than murder. And it brings it closer to finality for
the family,” Soong explained.
Nakea set sentencing for Feb. 15 next
year.
Aguiar was returned to the Kaua`i Community Correctional Center,
where he has been held since the attack on his wife.
Staff writer
Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and [
HREF=”mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net”>dwilken@pulitzer.net]
