The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Killer’s body moved from veterans’ cemetery
Convicted of 3 murders, Aillon had no right to plot
The body of Guillermo Aillon, who was convicted of a 1972 triple murder in North Haven, has been removed from a veterans cemetery in Middletown, a state official confirmed.
The removal of his body July 3 came a year-and-a-half after the New Haven Register reported Aillon was illegally buried in the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown. Federal law prohibits a person convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to life imprisonment from being buried at veterans cemeteries that receive federal funding. The Middletown cemetery receives such funds.
After the Register contacted the state Department of Veterans Affairs about the situation in January 2016, the headstone was quickly removed. State officials said at that time that they would also exhume his body.
Kevin Dacey of East Haven, who had researched the Aillon cemetery issue and alerted the Register to the situation in early 2016, helped move the case forward.
After Dacey again contacted the Register this month to report Aillon’s body had been moved; the Register got back in touch with Emily Hein, director of communications for the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
She replied, “Yes, I can confirm that his body has been removed from the CT Veterans Cemetery.”
Members of the Aillon family, who were upset about the initial coverage of the issue, have requested privacy. One of them was
asked for comment about the body’s removal but did not call back.
In 1984 Aillon was convicted of murdering his estranged wife, Barbara, and her parents, George and Bernice Montano. The three victims were found stabbed to death in their North Haven home in August 1972.
Aillon was first convicted of the murders in 1973. But the conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court because the trial judge had conversed with a juror during deliberations. A second trial ended with a hung jury in 1979. A third jury in 1984 convicted him and he was sentenced to serve 75 years to life in prison.
In the spring of 2014 Aillon became seriously ill and prison officials transferred him to a medical facility in Rocky Hill. He died about a month later.
His family members provided veterans officials with a copy of his discharge papers from the U.S. Army but they did not tell the officials of his criminal record. A family member told the Register the state officials didn’t ask about it and that the family was not aware of the law.
Dacey took an interest in the case because he grew up in the same North Haven neighborhood as Donald Montano, the brother of George Montano. Dacey discovered the federal law in question while doing research on the Veterans Administration website.
Dacey noted in an email to the Register that the state Department of Veterans’ Affairs form which a relative must complete for burial in a veterans cemetery was revised in January 2016 after this issue came to the department’s attention. The form now includes an eligibility compliance statement requiring the applicant to affirm the deceased person “was never convicted of a federal or state capital crime for which a sentence of imprisonment for life or the death penalty may be imposed.”
Dacey noted: “This form should help to prevent another such burial.”