Woman sent to prison for killing boyfriend after bringing people into his room where he got shot

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ariana Aguilar was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison after being found guilty in a trial of the murder of her boyfriend, Jorge Llamas.
Llamas' mother wrote a letter that was read during the sentencing about how his loss has impacted their family.
Aguilar's attorney argued she didn't plan the murder or wish Llamas any harm, but made other poor decisions.

SALT LAKE CITY — A mother whose 21-year-old son was shot and killed inside his Taylorsville home, said in a letter read on Tuesday that she "cannot fathom the motives behind committing such an atrocious act."

Gloria Marquez's letter was translated from Spanish and read by prosecutors at the sentencing on Tuesday for her son's girlfriend, 46-year-old Ariana Aguilar, who has been convicted of his murder. Aguilar's daughter and multiple teenage boys were also convicted related to the killing.

Marquez said her son, Jorge Llamas, was also a brother, uncle and friend — "someone whose absence we feel every single day." Marquez said her son supported her, and her health has worsened because of his death.

"As a mother yourself, I ask you from the bottom of my heart to put yourself in my shoes and consider how I have felt since the moment I was told my son would never see me again, not even to say goodbye," Marquez said to Aguilar. "I will miss him for the rest of my days, living only on memories."

Consecutive sentences

Aguilar was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for murder and five years to life in prison for aggravated burglary, first-degree felonies, along with two sentences of one to 15 years in prison for two counts of obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony, and zero to five years in prison for retaliation against a witness, a third-degree felony.

The sentence lengths are outlined in statute so the only decision for 3rd District Judge Patricia Kuendig was whether to run the sentences together. She followed the suggestion of prosecutors running the two longer sentences concurrently, but each of the other sentences will be served consecutively, meaning Aguilar will spend at least 17 years in custody.

On Oct. 13, 2024, Llamas was found with Aguilar unresponsive in a bedroom. He was later declared dead at the scene. A witness who was fighting with Aguilar while police were there reported that Aguilar had gotten into a fight with Llamas earlier that day and was locked outside, but later returned with her daughter, Natalie Aguilar, and some men she didn't know. She said two of the men went into Llamas' room, she heard a shot, and then Natalie Aguilar and the men ran from the home.

Natalie Aguilar later told police that her mom said they needed to jump Llamas because he "put hands on" her, charges claim. She reported that she and her mother broke a window screen, opened a window and instructed two teenagers to go inside and open the door before Ariana Aguilar led them to Llamas' room, charges claim.

They say the teenage boys later received a message from another saying "sorry, someone must have put a bullet in the chamber."

Ariana Aguilar was found guilty on all charges during a jury trial in April.

Llamas' cousin, Miriam Davis, spoke during the sentencing remotely and said Llamas "had his whole life ahead of him." She said if Ariana Aguilar didn't want anything to happen, she could have left or not told them where he was. She said they want a fair sentence.

"We only want for the judge to put herself in our shoes with all the pain that we are feeling," Davis said.

Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Brett Keeler said he has concerns that Ariana Aguilar continues to claim she never called her daughter to invite her to her boyfriend's home — something he said is contradicted by the evidence.

'There was not a plan'

Ariana Aguilar's attorney, Lance Bastian, argued it was a unique murder conviction, because the actions only merited a murder conviction because someone was killed while she was involved in a separate felony. He said the sentences should all run concurrently.

He said Ariana Aguilar only expected her daughter to come and did not know there was a gun until at least when the group was inside Llamas' home, and possibly inside his bedroom. He said she should have put a stop to what was happening, but that she complained about a "minor verbal and physical altercation" she had with her boyfriend, and the others in the group took action outside of her knowledge.

"There was not a plan here from Ms. Aguilar to do any of this. She called her daughter for a ride," he said. "She made some bad decisions, which ultimately resulted in some horrendous decisions (from others)."

According to Bastian, Aguilar yelled for someone to call 911 and held her hands on Llamas' neck until law enforcement arrived to help.

The attorney admitted his client had said things that were not true in her interview with police, but he said each of those things were to distance her daughter from the situation.

"As far as murder goes, what is crystal clear … from the absence of evidence in this case is that there is nothing to suggest that she at any point intended any serious harm to Mr. Llamas," Bastian said.

Ariana Aguilar made a short statement before her sentence was issued: "I hate that a simple night turned into something so horrible; nevertheless, here I am with a broken heart, ready to accept what the court has for me."

Multiple cases resolved

Ariana Aguilar's case is the final case to conclude related to the killing. Natalie Aguilar and Alejandro Mendoza were each convicted of manslaughter and aggravated burglary, both second-degree felonies, and sentenced to two terms of one to 15 years in prison — but those prison terms were suspended, and they were instead ordered to spend five years on probation.

Another teenager who Natalie Aguilar reported fired the gun, entered a guilty plea to murder, a first-degree felony, and was sentenced to secure care in juvenile court on May 11. Third Juvenile District Court Judge Tupakk Renteria extended the juvenile court's jurisdiction so he could be held in juvenile detention until he is 25, the maximum sentence the court can impose.

Two other teenagers, between 14 and 16 at the time of the killing, were charged with obstruction of justice. One pleaded guilty, and charges were dismissed against the other.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement on Tuesday that his office appreciates the decision from the judge and jury in Ariana Aguilar's case to bring justice to Llamas' loved ones.

"Reckless gun violence took the life of an innocent man. This prosecution helped deliver accountability for the fatal decision the defendant made to have people retaliate for a perceived wrong," he said.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.