SANFORD, Fla. — The man convicted in the 1986 rape and murder of a Winter Park woman was sentenced Tuesday.
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Danny Emmitt was arrested in the case in 2019, after DNA evidence was retested.
Emmitt will spend life behind bars for killing Eve Aguilar.
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Aguilar’s sister Denise said Emmitt destroyed her family and she spent 37 years blaming herself for her sister’s murder, thinking she could have done something.
She knows now that it was not her fault.
Emmitt did not speak before his sentencing and stared blankly as he was sentenced to life behind bars on both counts. He is eligible for parole in 20 years.
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Denise said that Eve did not deserve to die the way she did.
She told the judge Eve was like a second mother to her and she was close to their mother.
She says her mother was never the same after Eve’s murder. She was never the same either.
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In a powerful moment from Tuesday’s sentencing, Denise brought the last gift that Eve gave her to court, which was a bible and gave it to Emmitt to take to prison with him.
Prosecutors said this case is a reminder to the families out there whose cases have not been solved that there is hope.
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