An Ashville man was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury of his peers.

The case involved Stephen Jonathan Miller, 28, of Ashville, who was convicted for the April 25, 2008 death of Adalberto Aguilar, 43.

According to testimony given by a forensic expert at the trial last week, Aguilar was shot three times in the chest, once in the back of the neck and once in the back. He died on the scene from the gunshot wounds.

The jury took just over an hour to deliberate after hearing two days of testimony.

“In our country, you can’t kill another person because you don’t like them or their behavior,” said St. Clair County Assistant District Attorney Adalberto Aguilar after the verdict was read and Miller was taken into custody. “The jury spoke for the victim.”

Miller told the jury that he shot Aguilar five times with an automatic pistol after he claimed Aguilar threatened to kill him and burn down his house and then lunged at him.

The District Attorney’s Office was seeking a conviction of Murder for Miller. Halfway through deliberations, the jury asked Circuit Judge Jim Hill what the penalty for manslaughter and murder were.  Hill told them that was not a consideration for them to base their decision.

The jury also asked the judge for a copy of the self-defense law, and Hill re-read it to them, as he had before they went into deliberations.

After the trial Birmingham attorney Roger Appell spoke for his client, Jonathan Miler. “I am surprised by the verdict,” he said. “I was expecting an acquittal. I am in shock right now. He (Miller) said he was sorry this ever happened and wished it never did.”

Miller took the stand during the second day of the trial, claiming he shot Aguilar in self-defense.

Appell requested Miller remain out on the same $100,000 bond from his 2008 arrest until his sentencing hearing but Judge Hill denied that request. Appell said he intends to appeal the case after Miller is sentenced on March 12.

Miller faces between 10 to 20 years in prison.

Martin Cuamatzi, Aguilar’s brother-in-law, of New Jersey, and Aguilar’s wife, Maria Teresa Alverado , both said they were thankful the jury served justice.

“We were happy that [Miller] was put away, we didn’t care for how long. We don’t have any ill feelings toward his family,” Cuamatzi said. “We are the ones who lost our brother.” The two both said they felt Miller deserved jail time.

“He hurt both families,” Aguilar’s sister, Maria Teresa, said. “He did the damage.”

Assistant D.A. Connelly said the state is satisfied with the ruling. “The jury’s verdict said, ‘You can’t shoot an unarmed man. Most of this defense was about putting the victim on trial.”

In his closing argument, Miller’s attorney made the case that Aguilar was in the country illegally, driving while intoxicated and had smoked marijuana, was working illegally and getting paid under the table while taking jobs away from area residents need to feed their families, could potentially have killed a child in the neighborhood instead of hitting a mailbox and cursed and threatened Miller’s life.

“It was Mr. Aguilar who set the events in motion that led to all this,” Appell said in his last appeal to the jury.

St. Clair County Assistant District Attorney Lamar Williamson told the jury that although Aguilar’s actions were illegal, Aguilar should have been arrested for DUI and possibly deported, not murdered by someone.

“This is not a who-done-it,” Williamson said.

Williamson told the jury that the indictment charged Miller with murder, but added that it also included the lesser offense of manslaughter, which is recklessly causing the death of another person.

“Reckless is knowing ‘If I do this action something might happen, but I’m going to do it anyway,’” Williamson said, before adding that Miller “would have been better off doing nothing.”