Convicted rapist has guilty-plea appeal rejected

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on June 13, 2023.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

A Medicine Hat man considered a serial rapist by police has lost an appeal of a ruling to dismiss guilty pleas two years ago.

Claudio Evelio Tovar Aguilar, 56, was sentenced to seven years in prison in late 2022, about one year after he applied to rescind a guilty plea arguing he spoke mostly Spanish and did not understand the gravity of a plea arrangement drafted between his attorney and prosecutors.

Justice Eric Brooks of the Medicine Hat Court of Justice ruled against the application on grounds Tovar Aquilar conducted his day-to-day business in English. His defence lawyer was also present, as was an interpreter by telephone during a 108-minute phone conversation explaining the deal.

Tovar Aguilar’s appeal was heard by a three-justice panel of the Alberta Court of Appeal on April 4, 2023 and the ruling was announced June 9.

It found that an in-person translator would have been preferable, but said Brooks was satisfied the man’s former defence attorney, Greg White, went to “great lengths” to ensure his client was well-informed.

It found no reversible error in Brooks’s judgment and dismissed the appeal.

Tovar Aguilar was charged in late 2019 after bystanders in a bar alerted police that a man was leaving with a severely inebriated woman and followed a car to the Saamis Tepee site.

At that point Medicine Hat police intervened, rescuing the woman before finding an unknown but “stupefying” substance. Investigators say pictures on the man’s phone led them to investigate a suspected pattern of similar drug-induced sex assaults.

A year-long investigation found as many as 12 more women who police believe were victims dating back 10 years.

Four complainants formed the core of the Crown prosecutor’s case and seven more provided statements to police.