Michael McLellan pleaded guilty Friday to the 2018 kidnapping, rape and murder of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar in Lumberton.
Robeson County Sheriff Burnis Wilkins said McLellan tried escaping twice Friday. Once on Friday morning while on the way to Central Prison in Raleigh to the Robeson County Courthouse. However, Wilkins said McLellan’s homemade key got stuck in the handcuffs.
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On Friday afternoon as deputies transported McLellan back to Central Prison from the courthouse, Wilkins said McLellan removed what authorities call a black box, which connects to other chains, while being transported along Interstate 40 near milemarker 317.
The second escape attempt came after McLellan’s guilty plea.
In court, McLellan was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Wilkins said Friday’s second escape attempt was a struggle between McLellan and a deputy. Wlkins went for the deputy’s gun according to Wilkins.
"He was able to hit the latch that undoes the gun in the holster and actually have control of the weapon," Wilkins said of McLellan.
Wilkins said the deputy driving slammed on the brakes.
"[The deputy] has one hand on the gun," Wilkins said. "McLellan has his hand on the actual grip of the gun and there's a struggle for it."
Wilkins said the detention officer in the car took her pepper spray and sprayed McLellan in his face.
Wilkins said McLellan let off the gun and said, “I surrender.”
Authorities took McLellan to Central Prison in Raleigh after the second escape attempt.
November 2018 murder of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar
Aguilar, 13, had just started her aunt's green 2002 Ford Expedition on the morning of Nov. 5, 2018, family members said, when a man wearing a bandana jumped in and drove away with both the SUV and the child.
The SUV was found within a few days, but Aguilar’s body wasn't found until Nov. 27, 2018. The search involved the FBI and spanned two states.
According to the autopsy report, Aguilar's body was partially decomposed and had a "broken plastic table on top and black tire on top of table." The teen was naked when she was found.
Authorities said her body had minimal evidence of trauma, but signs consistent with sexual abuse.
Throughout the search for Aguilar, authorities called on the community to share tips, pointing especially to surveillance video that captured a man walking south on Lambeth Street before turning north on N.C. Highway 41 toward Aguilar's home.
Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies vetted more than 850 leads and conducted nearly 500 interviews. That legwork and testing – of the stolen SUV, recovered on Nov. 8, 2018, and of Aguilar's body – produced the evidence to charge McLellan, the FBI said in December 2018.
Michael McLellan charged with murder while already in custody
Already in police custody on Dec. 8, 2018, McLellan was charged with multiple felonies, including first-degree murder, first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense, first-degree kidnapping, abduction of a child and concealment of a death. Dec. 8, 2018, was the same day of Aguilar’s funeral.
On Dec. 8, 2018, authorities held McLellan at the Robeson County Jail on an unrelated kidnapping charge when authorities added the charges in Aguilar's case.
McLellan's name surfaced in online rumors as a possible suspect within hours of when Aguilar's body was found, but authorities did not confirm his connection with Aguilar's disappearance and death for days.
On Nov. 13, 2018, authorities arrested McLellan and charged him with second-degree kidnapping, possession of a firearm by a felon and attempted robbery with a dangerous weapon in connection with an Oct. 15, 2018, attack in Fairmont.
Aguilar was an eighth grader at Lumberton Junior High School.