Judge rules man could face death penalty if found guilty of Hania Aguilar's murder
A judge ruled Thursday that Michael McLellan, the man charged with the kidnapping, rape and murder of Hania Aguilar last fall, could face the death penalty if found guilty.
McLellan was already in police custody when he was charged in December and connected to the abduction and search for Hania that riveted the state for three weeks until her body was found in a nearby pond.
Lumberton police charged McLellan with 10 felonies:
- first-degree murder,
- first-degree forcible rape and statutory rape of a person 15 or younger,
- first-degree sex offense and statutory sex offense with a person 15 or younger,
- first-degree kidnapping,
- larceny,
- restraint,
- abduction of a child and
- concealment of a death.
McLellan was being held in Robeson County jail on an unrelated kidnapping charge when authorities added the charges in Hania's case. He remains in custody without bond in Wake County.
He is due back in court on September 9.
McLellan, of 513 Marvin St. in Fairmont, was arrested Nov. 13 and charged with second-degree kidnapping, possession of a firearm by a felon and attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with an Oct. 15 attack in Fairmont.
McLellan's name surfaced in online rumors as a possible suspect within hours of when Hania's body was found, but authorities did not confirm his connection with Hania's disappearance and death for days.
Abducted from her front yard
Hania, 13, had just started her aunt's SUV on the morning of Nov. 5, family members said, when a man wearing a bandana jumped in an drove away with both vehicle and child.
A massive search across two states brought in the FBI. The SUV was found within a few days, but Hania's body wasn't located until Nov. 27. In both instances, authorities were tight-lipped about what led to those discoveries.
Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies vetted more than 850 leads and conducted nearly 500 interviews. That legwork and testing – of the stolen SUV, recovered on Nov. 8, and of Hania’s body – produced the evidence for to charge McLellan, the FBI said in announcing those charges.
Authorities did not say whether he confessed or whether any evidence from him led them to Hania's body off Wire Grass Road.
At the time, Lumberton Chief of Police Michael McNeill said of that search, "It was a deliberate plan to get out there."
Evidence at the scene, he said, along with surveillance footage and tips, "All of it will help us piece together what happened to Hania."
