MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — A state official says the body of a man convicted of fatally stabbing three people in 1972 has been removed from the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown.
Department of Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Emily Hein recently told the New Haven Register that Guillermo Aillon’s body was exhumed from the cemetery July 3. Hein did not say where the body was taken.
The removal came after the Register reported last year that Aillon was illegally buried at the cemetery. Federal law bans people sentenced to life in prison for capital crimes from being buried in veterans cemeteries that receive federal funding.
Aillon died in 2014 while serving a 75-year prison sentence for murdering his estranged wife and her parents in North Haven. He was an Army veteran who served in Vietnam.
He was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 25 years to life, i.e., three life sentences. In Connecticut, a life sentence is now calculated at 60 years (a fixed sentence instead of the indeterminate sentencing used previously.) In my state it's 45 years.
No, it's not. From the State Board of Pardon and Paroles:
"Parole-eligible offenders serving a life sentence for a serious violent felony (murder, rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sexual battery, armed robbery, or kidnapping) committed prior to July 1, 2006, are initially considered for parole after serving 14 years. Those offenders who committed such crimes on or after July 1, 2006, will not be considered for parole until they have served 30 years. Most life-sentenced offenders convicted of serious violent felonies before 1995 were eligible for parole after seven years and have already received their initial parole consideration."
In my state a life termer is not eligible for parole until he or she has served 38.24 years.
Life is life. Life without possibility of parole is life without possibility of parole. What I said was correct. A life sentence will place the offender in the custody of the department of corrections for their natural life. That does not mean they will be incarcerated the entire term of sentence.