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Suspect in Hania Aguilar slaying faces separate 2016 rape charges

By Danielle Haynes
Michael Ray McLellan faces 10 felony counts for the abduction, sexual assault and killing of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. Photo courtesy of the Robeson County, N.C., Sheriff's Office
Michael Ray McLellan faces 10 felony counts for the abduction, sexual assault and killing of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar. Photo courtesy of the Robeson County, N.C., Sheriff's Office

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The man charged with first-degree murder in the death of a 13-year-old North Carolina girl faced new charges linked to a 2016 rape, prosecutors announced Monday.

Michael Ray McLellan, 34, appeared in court Monday for both cases, where a judge revoked his bond.

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The FBI and Lumberton, N.C., Police Department charged him Saturday with first-degree murder, first-degree forcible rape, statutory rape of a person under 15 years of age or younger, first-degree sexual offense, statutory sex offense with a person 15 years or younger, first-degree kidnapping, felony larceny, felony restraint, abduction of child and concealment of a death for the abduction, sexual assault and killing of Hania Aguilar.

Robeson County District Attorney Johnson Britt announced the additional charges of rape, burglary and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the unsolved 2016 case.

Speaking during a news conference Monday, Britt said McLellan could face the death penalty for the first-degree murder, but his successor would make that decision.

"I would seek the death penalty in this case," he said.

Hania disappeared Nov. 5 after being forced into a family member's SUV outside her family's home. Searchers found her body three weeks later in the same county from which she was abducted.

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Testing from the stolen SUV in which Hania was abducted and from her body led police to arrest McLellan. The cause of her death has not been determined.

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