Shooting victim decries plea deal

MONTROSE — The three years Gilberto Aguilar could spend in prison for a 2007 shooting are not enough, the victim and her family said.

Aguilar, 31, pleaded guilty in court Monday to felony-5 menacing and had his original charge of first-degree assault dropped.

The plea agreement called for a maximum of three years in the Department of Corrections, plus credit for time served. Probation or community corrections are also sentencing possibilities, depending on what the court decides.

Aguilar shot a .45-caliber gun into a crowd in a North First Street parking lot Oct. 28, 2007. Yvette Vigil was walking through the lot when the weapon discharged, and was struck in the upper leg. Aguilar was captured a few days later, when police officers found him hiding under a mattress at a relative’s home.

“I can’t see him walking with felony menacing,” Vigil’s father, Chris, said during court Monday. “It’s very unfair. I think he should go to prison for about 30 years.”

He said the family would do what it could to have the plea agreement tossed.

“I totally disagree (with the plea deal),” Yvette Vigil, who has since moved out of the area, said via telephone after court. “If there’s anything I can do for the sentence to change, I’m going to do everything I can.

“I absolutely do not agree with him being able to walk away with nothing but probation after he’s damaged my life the way he has.”

District Attorney Myrl Serra said he could not comment on the plea agreement now, but the reasoning behind it would be made clear at Aguilar’s sentencing Sept. 8.

The sentencing range for felony-5 menacing is one to three years, with three being the maximum, unless aggravating circumstances are demonstrated. Aguilar’s agreement calls for a three-year cap.

Vigil said she didn’t think Aguilar’s plea agreement was fair to her or Montrose residents.

“The fact that he can walk out into society and be able to shoot a gun and possibly hurt or kill anybody, and for them to look at this and just let him walk away, whether it’s me or anybody else, it’s not fair to our society,” she said.

“It’s not fair to the people of Montrose to know people can walk the streets like that and get away with committing a crime so violent and our justice system will feel like it’s not that big of deal.”

Vigil said she’s thankful to be doing well, after the shooting turned her life upside down. “That one incident affected me for my whole life. ... But I’m healthy and I thank God for that.”

Vigil and her parents also said they were unhappy with emergency and police response to the incident, which they alleged had been slow. Vigil said they were considering action against the city of Montrose.