"Innocente"

Rape Suspects Headed for Trial

By Gil Brady, 8-14-07

	"Suspects Daniel 'Bonilla' Juarez & Armando Rodriguez Aguilar" head for court in June/By Zac Rosser

JACKSON, Wyo. — Two men extradited recently from Mexico, accused of raping one woman and assaulting another on the Town Square two summers ago, pleaded “not guilty” last week during their arraignments in 9th District Court here.

Accompanied by their public defenders and Spanish interpreters, Daniel “Bonilla” Juarez, 21, and Armando Aguilar, 25, listened as Judge Nancy J. Guthrie read aloud the felony charges against them and their rights to: remain silent; challenge evidence and witnesses; produce witnesses on their behalf; and plead guilty, not guilty, no contest or innocent.

Asked following court Thursday if he planned on challenging the state’s DNA evidence against Aguilar, as attorney Kent Brown did during Juarez’s probable cause hearing last month, John DeLeon of the Rawlins’ Public Defender’s Office said, “I’m not ready to discuss that…I haven’t received discovery yet. Not prepared to comment to the paper.”

Before recusing herself, Guthrie warned the defendants that pleading no contest or guilty would result in a conviction and relieve the state’s burden of having to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Also, the judge cautioned, should they be found guilty, and upon serving possible jail time, Juarez and Aguilar could be deported and banished from the United States.

The men appeared on separate days in this darkly wainscotted and thinly attended upstairs courtroom. On Friday, Brown’s father sat alone in the front row opposite family members of one alleged victim: all watching his son defend Juarez.

A gag order is in place—barring the disclosure of information likely to identify either reported victim.

Despite the separate arraignments, family members of one presumptive victim, who have attended the defendants’ every court appearance since their arrival here in June after fleeing the country in August of 2005, were present again last week and at times exchanged icy glances with the accused.

Aguilar spent most of his proceeding Thursday looking ashen, clean-cut and impassive, keeping his gaze and voice lowered, appearing to lack the nerve of Juarez who did not shy from locking eyes on Friday with the purported victim’s mother, who has said her daughter is in New York.

“Innocent,” Juarez said loudly and clearly, compared to Aguilar’s softer “Innocente,” when Guthrie asked how they wished to plea. Asked by the judge whether his name was “Juarez” or “Bonilla,” the defendant said “Juarez.”

As she did last August before the trials of the two men’s alleged accomplices—the already convicted Gustavo Zuniga Bonilla and Federico Lopez—Guthrie removed herself from Aguilar’s and Juarez’s cases beyond arraigning them, because she said of her friendship with the family of a victim/witness.

Aguilar has been charged with one count of accessory before the fact to rape and one count of first-degree sexual assault. Juarez faces two counts of first-degree sexual assault.

Each count carries between five and 50 years in prison, plus $10,000 in fines, or both. However, under Wyoming’s enhanced sentencing guidelines, Teton County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Nicole Krieger is seeking life in jail for both men.

By law, the court has 180 days to set trial dates for Aguilar and Juarez. Guthrie has transferred both cases to 5th District Judge Gary P. Hartman. Due to their proven flight risk, Circuit Court Judge Timothy C. Day set bail for both men at $1,000,000 a piece.

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