Post by Graveyardbride on Aug 14, 2017 6:19:05 GMT -5
No Murderers or Rapists Allowed in VA Cemeteries
HARTFORD, Conn. – The recent exhumation of an Vietnam veteran’s body from the Connecticut State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown was a rare invocation of federal laws aimed at keeping murderers and rapists out of veterans’ burial grounds, federal and state officials say. The remains of Guillermo Aillon, US Army, were disinterred July 3 after state veterans’ affairs officials learned he had been serving a life prison sentence for fatally stabbing his estranged wife and her parents in North Haven in 1972. It is unclear where the remains were taken.
Only one other person appears to have been exhumed from a U.S. veterans’ cemetery under a 2013 federal law that gave the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to dig up murderers and rapists, according to the VA. In 2014, the body of Army veteran Michael LeShawn Anderson was removed from the Fort Custer National Cemetery in Augusta, Mich. Authorities said Anderson killed Alicia Koehl, wounded three other people and killed himself in a 2012 shooting in Indianapolis. The 2013 law, named after Koehl, specifically authorized the exhumation of Anderson.
Burying convicted murderers and rapists at veterans’ cemeteries was banned by a 1997 federal law, which was aimed at preventing Oklahoma City bomber and Army veteran Timothy McVeigh’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The law prohibits the burials of individuals sentenced to life in prison or death on convictions of federal or state capital crimes and certain sexual offenses in VA cemeteries – such as the Connecticut cemetery – that receive federal funding. But exhumation authority did not exist until the 2013 law, which also applied to those who committed murders and rapes, but were unavailable for trial and were not convicted. The law applies only to veterans buried after the law went into effect on Dec. 23, 2013, with the exception of Anderson.
The remains of another veteran convicted of murder, Russell Wayne Wagner, were removed from Arlington National Cemetery under an order approved by Congress in 2006 as part of a veterans’ bill. Wagner killed an elderly couple in Hagerstown, Md., in 1994.
Connecticut officials did not know about Aillon’s convictions because he was transferred from prison to a hospital before he died in 2014 and his death certificate listed the hospital as the location where he died, said Thomas Saadi, spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Commissioner Sean Connolly. “It’s a very rare occurrence,” Saadi said of exhumation. “The Aillon situation was very unique.” Saadi said the state has since required funeral directors to attest that veterans whose families have applied for burial in the state veterans’ cemetery were not convicted of murder or rape.
Relatives of Aillon did not return messages seeking comment. They previously have said they were unaware of the burial restrictions and were upset with the exhumation plans.
At the Michigan cemetery, Anderson was buried with full military honors, despite Koehl’s murder. “It was just a total insult,” Koehl’s father-in-law, Frank Koehl, told the Detroit Free Press. Anderson’s mother, Debra Graham, said her son’s remains were relocated to another cemetery. “I couldn’t believe it. It hurt so bad,” she told the Associated Press, referring to the exhumation. “A lot of pain and grief. I try not to think about it. I try to think about the good times we had.”
In 1972, Guillermo Allion (above), a native of Bolivia, was estranged from his second wife, Barbara, who had moved into the North Haven home of her parents and filed for divorce. On August 14, Barbara, 26, and her parents, J. George Montano, 49, and Bernice Montano, 46, were found brutally murdered. Mrs. Montano’s body was near the front door. She had four stab wounds, including one that likely killed her instantly. Barbara Allion’s corpse was discovered in an alcove next to the kitchen. She had been stabbed four times and her 7-month-old daughter, Catherine, was beneath a table nearby, blood-spattered, but unharmed. Mr. Montano’s body was on a staircase landing between the first and second floors. He had more than 20 stab wounds and there was evidence of a fierce struggle, with bloodstains leading from a second-floor bedroom down the hall to the stairs, then down the stairs to the landing were the Montano was lying.
About an hour later, North Haven police stopped Aillon for a noisy muffler and noticed a bloody knife in the back seat. Aillon said he had used it to cut roast beef at a family picnic and the officers, unaware of the murders, let him go.
Prosecutors claimed Guillermo Aillon, who was in a heated custody battle with his wife, knew he would lose any claim to a large trust fund the Montanos had created for their granddaughter if the divorce was granted.
After three trials Guiellermo was finally convicted and sentenced to 75 years to life. Throughout his time in prison, he filed numerous appeals, but all failed.
Sources: Dave Collins, Associated Press, August 13, 2017; Colin Poitras and Dave Altimari, The Hartford Courant, June 11, 1999; and Find-a-Grave.