Man Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison For Killing Alleged Abuser

June 16, 2010— -- In front of a packed California courtroom, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ronald Brown sentenced 32-year-old Aaron Vargas to nine years in prison. Vargas faced a maximum of ten years after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter this past April for the 2009 shooting of Darrell McNeill, a man Vargas claimed had abused him since age 11.

The judge's decision was a crushing disappointment to Vargas' family and many supporters in his northern California community of Fort Bragg, who had hoped for probation. Local newspapers reported that in sentencing Vargas, Judge Brown said: "I believe the defendant intended to kill [McNeill] and intended him to suffer," and that Vargas' actions "were consistent with an intentional killing."

When Darrell McNeill was shot and killed in the entryway of his home on the evening of February 8, 2009, people in Fort Bragg were stunned. McNeill, a local businessman, father, and husband who had volunteered for the Boy Scouts of America, owned a popular store and was considered an all-around nice guy.

But local residents were never prepared for the revelation that McNeill, 63, may have been leading a secret life, and that what initially seemed like a cut-and-dry case of revenge would test the town's sense of right and wrong.

It all started with a gunshot in February 2009. Mendocino County sheriff's investigators raced to the scene to find McNeill lying on the ground, dead from a single shot to the stomach. McNeill's wife, Liz, told investigators that Aaron Vargas, a man she had known for decades, was the lone gunman. She said she ran into the room after hearing the shot and saw Vargas standing there with the gun.

Vargas, 32, a father and part-time construction worker, had grown up next door to the McNeills and was their son's good friend. Before he fled the scene of the crime, Liz McNeill told investigators, Vargas had revealed to her a deep and dark secret: Darrell McNeill had sexually molested him since he was a young boy.

But there were more surprises around the corner for sheriff's investigators, the McNeill and Vargas families, and the entire town.

"As far as the case goes, it wasn't a whodunit," Mendocino County Sgt. Greg Van Patten said. "It was very clear that Aaron Vargas shot and killed Darrell McNeill. The only question about this case was what was the motive for the killing."

While investigators spoke with Liz McNeill, Vargas arrived across town at the home of his parents, Bob and Robin Vargas.

"He just stood there," his mother said. "He said that he had shot Darrell, and that he wanted to tell me he was sorry and tell me goodbye. And that's when he told me Darrell had molested him."