KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Kansas Supreme Court overturned a man’s capital murder convictions in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and their baby on Friday, saying his confessions weren’t admissible because he was questioned after invoking his constitutional right to remain silent.
Luis Aguirre, now 27, was convicted in June 2012 of capital murder in the 2009 deaths of 18-year-old Tanya Maldonado and the couple’s 13-month-old son, Juan, whose bodies were buried in shallow graves after prosecutors say she demanded he pay child support. Jurors didn’t impose the death penalty, although prosecutors had sought it.
Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson didn’t immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment. Debra Wilson, an attorney for Aguirre, also didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The court found in reversing the conviction and ordering a new trial that “the district court erred in denying the suppression of Aguirre’s statements made after the Miranda violation.”
Aguirre was living in Chicago when a then-16-year-old Maldonado became pregnant. Afterward, he left for National Guard training in Alabama and began dating a soldier, whom he lived with in Ogden while she was stationed at Fort Riley. He later moved with the woman’s son to Austin, Texas, after she was deployed to Iraq.
But when Aguirre didn’t follow up on promises to provide for Juan, Maldonado threatened to take legal action and gave Aguirre until Sept. 20, 2009, when he would be Chicago for National Guard drills, to decide what he wanted to do. On that day, Maldonado and Juan left the Chicago homeless shelter where they had been living. Maldonado told her case manager that Juan’s father, who was in the military, was coming to pick them up and take them to Texas.
A hunter found Maldonado and Juan’s bodies on Oct. 25, 2009, near Ogden in a shallow grave that an expert testified appeared had been dug as many as a few days before the bodies were buried.
After the discovery, Riley County investigating detectives traveled to Austin to interview Aguirre. They initially said they just wanted to talk to him because Maldonado was missing but when they revealed that they knew she was dead, Aguirre said, “This is - I guess where I, I’m going take my rights” and added that he wanted to deliver his girlfriend’s son to family.
Detectives continued questioning him, but Aguirre said they shouldn’t have because his statement was an invocation of his Miranda rights.
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