Man sentenced for ‘horrible execution’ discovered in Grafton

A 37-year-old man who was convicted by an Ozaukee County jury of participating in the 2023 murder of a Texas man found gagged and shot in the head in a burned out car in the Town of Grafton was sentenced Monday to at least 40 years in prison for what a judge called a “horrible execution.”

“When you engage in the beating, binding and execution of someone, there will be massive consequences,” Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Steve Cain told Miguel A. Aponte, the Waukesha resident who in January was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide with the use of a dangerous weapon after a five-day trial.

The jury deliberated less than four hours before convicting Aponte on Jan. 20 of participating in the murder of 49-year-old Laeng Sanavongsay as well as felony bail jumping. At the time of the murder, Aponte  was free in lieu of bail on a Milwaukee County charge of delivering cocaine, a crime he was later found not guilty of committing.

The Ozaukee County jury acquitted Aponte of attempting to disfigure a corpse, and a charge of false imprisonment was dismissed.

First-degree intentional homicide is punishable by a mandatory life sentence, although judges can make people guilty of the crime eligible for extended supervision after 20 years in prison. Cain ruled that Aponte can petition for supervised release after serving 40 years in prison, which was the recommendation of Ozaukee County District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay.

“What is before the court is a brutal, brutal crime,” Lindsay said.

Referring to Sanavongsay and based on an autopsy report, Lindsay added, “This was an execution at almost point-blank range. Someone held a gun directly up to his head and killed him.”

Cain praised the work of Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office detectives who painstakingly retraced the electronic footsteps of Sanavongsay and Aponte using cell phone data to tie Aponte to the murder, yet key details of the crime remain a mystery.

The jury and prosecutors are convinced Aponte, who was convicted of being a party to the crime of murder, participated in the killing of Sanavongsay, but authorities also know he had an accomplice.

“Mr. Aponte did not commit this crime alone, but he knew everything about how Mr. Sanavongsay died,” Lindsay said. “Whether Mr. Aponte was the primary or a secondary actor, only Mr. Aponte knows that, but he participated in it.”

Cain told Aponte that it is not known whether he played a major or minor role in the murder “because you didn’t have the courage to step up” and explain to investigators how Sanavongsay died.

Also unexplained is why Sanavongsay flew from Texas to Chicago, then drove to Milwaukee and wound up dead in a relatively remote area of the Town of Grafton, although authorities say his murder has little to do with Ozaukee County.

Sanavongsay “got on the wrong side of a criminal operation and paid for it with his life,” Lindsay said. “There’s no nexus between Ozaukee County and this case except Mr. Aponte and his co-conspirator thought it was an efficient place to dispose of his body and attempt to burn it.”

That, Lindsay and Cain said, was a miscalculation. While Sanavongsay’s killing may have been one of several murders in a large city, it stood out as a heinous crime worthy of intense investigation in Ozaukee County.

“A detective told you that when a murder happens in Ozaukee County, it’s a big deal,” Cain told Aponte, calling the investigation into the crime “nothing short of amazing.

“Perhaps such effort wouldn’t have been made in other areas.”

The investigation began on March 4, 2023, when at 9:27 a.m. a deputy on patrol spotted a 2022 Chevrolet Malibu facing north and parked off the roadway on the east side of Highway C south of Falls Road. The car had soot markings above the rear driver’s side window and all the windows were obscured by smoke residue.

Inside the car, the deputy found the body of Sanavongsay laying across the back seat as if he had been seated on the rear passenger side and was pushed or fell over toward the driver’s side. There was tape over his mouth and blood coming from his head, according to a criminal complaint.

Authorities identified Sanavongsay, whose last known address was in Texas, using fingerprint data.

An autopsy concluded Sanavongsay was shot in the right side of his head and died of that wound. He had ligature marks on both wrists, suggesting his hands were tied, and several broken ribs.

Investigators learned that the Malibu had been rented by Sanavongsay and was equipped with a cellular modem tracker. Using data from that device as well as Sanavongsay’s cell phone, they retraced his movements just before his death.

At 5:05 p.m. Friday, March 3, Sanavongsay, who flew from Texas, picked up the rental car at Chicago O’Hare International Airport and arrived in the area of I-43 and Capital Drive in Milwaukee at about 6:30 p.m., when the last outgoing call was made on his phone.

An hour later, data from his phone suggested he then traveled to Milwaukee’s Third Ward, where he stayed until about 8:50 p.m.

His phone was next detected at 9:10 p.m. in New Berlin, where it stayed for five minutes before returning to the area of I-43 and Capital Drive in Milwaukee.

Data from the car showed it headed north from that area around 10:15 p.m. and at 10:30 p.m. was near Pioneer Road in Ozaukee County.

Authorities obtained information from cellular towers that showed the movements of a particular phone were consistent with those of Sanavongsay’s phone and the rental car and was used often to call a woman who lives on National Avenue in New Berlin.

That woman was in a relationship with Aponte and is the mother of his child. Days of surveillance revealed that the woman and Aponte lived together at her New Berlin home, the criminal complaint states.

Data from that phone showed it traveled from New Berlin to the area of I-43 and Capital Drive, arriving at 6:34 p.m. on March 3 before going to the Third Ward, then back to New Berlin at 9:10 p.m., consistent with the movement of Sanavongsay’s phone and the rental car, according to the complaint.

The phone then appears to remain in New Berlin until 11:39 p.m., when it traveled to Franklin.

On Sept. 13, the Wisconsin Department of Justice informed the Sheriff’s Office that a DNA sample taken from the rear driver’s side door of the rental car matched Aponte’s DNA, the complaint states.

During Monday’s sentencing hearing, Lindsay described Aponte as callous, saying that after Sanavongsay was bound and beaten at a Milwaukee-area body shop, Aponte and others went out for drinks in Milwaukee’s Third Ward.

He said Aponte was long involved in selling drugs and implicated in drug trafficking operations throughout the country.

Lindsay bristled at claims by Aponte’s lawyers that he cooperated in the investigation and was a family man.

“He was so clearly lying to law enforcement,” he said.

Aponte’s lawyer, Barbara Pierce, said, in fact, he was a good father to his three children.

In asking Cain to make Aponte eligible for extended supervision after 20 years in prison, Pierce said, “The evidence did not focus on Mr. Aponte being the primary actor. We’re here because the jury believed Mr. Aponte had some role in this.”

Sanavongsay’s sister thanked detectives, prosecutors and Cain for “their commitment to pursuing the truth,” but said there remains “many missing pieces” for the family to figure out.

In addition to taking her brother from her and her siblings, Aponte and his accomplices left his three children without a father and his mother without a son.

“His children deserved to grow up with him. Our mother deserved to have her son at home safely,” she said.

Aponte, who stood shackled in the courtroom as he spoke, said that during the 895 days he spent in the Ozaukee County jail, he read the Bible cover-to-cover and converted 19 people, including three Muslims, to Christianity.

“My heart goes out to the victim’s family,” he said. “I understand this is a horrible thing they are going through, and I pray for them.”

Aponte, who said he was convinced he would be acquitted of murder, added, “They are not the only victims here.

“I pray for the D.A., for God to soften his heart.”

Aponte said he considers himself a “vessel of God.”

“I’m looking at this as a test of my faith,” he said. “I have to walk through fire. In the end, I will prevail. I believe God will save me from all this.”

Aponte said he will appeal his conviction.