LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) — A judge has denied bond for the man accused in the death of a North Carolina teenager.
News outlets report 34-year-old Michael Ray McLellan appeared in a Robeson County court Monday, days after he was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in the death of 13-year-old Hania Noelia Aguilar. The judge appointed a public defender to represent him.
The public defender’s office declined comment Monday.
Police said Aguilar went outside on Nov. 5 to start a relative’s SUV to prepare to leave for the school bus stop when a man forced her into the vehicle and fled. Police found her body several weeks later.
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District Attorney Johnson Britt said that because he’s leaving office later this month, the decision on whether it is a capital case rests with Matt Scott, who won November’s election.
Scott said he had not made a decision about the death penalty, but noted that McLellan’s case would qualify.
“This is a horrific set of facts,” Scott said.
Britt told a news conference that evidence gathered in the search for the teenager helped solve a 2016 rape, burglary and robbery case. McLellan is charged with first-degree rape and first-degree burglary in that case.
McLellan will be kept in custody in Raleigh between court appearances in Robeson County, Britt said.