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Cuellar pleads guilty
jeremy cuellar
Jeremy Cuellar

Jeremy Cuellar, a Fort Stewart soldier who was arrested in January and charged with shooting and killing fellow soldier Sgt. Tyrone Hassel III in the driveway of Hassel’s family’s home on New Year’s Eve in Michigan, plead guilty to second-degree murder in a Berrien County, Mich., courtroom on Monday, according to a report posted on WNDU.com.

The news outlet reported Cuellar’s plea agreement mandates a minimum sentence of 65 years in prison, though he could get a life sentence. The alleged murderer will be sentenced in late September, according to WNDU.com.

Cuellar, according to the Associated Press, was being held on a $2.5 million bond and was scheduled to be tried in August.

Hassel’s wife, and Cuellar’s girlfriend, Kemia Hassel, also a Fort Stewart soldier, was convicted in mid-July of masterminding her husband’s murder. Her sentencing is scheduled for late August.

Cuellar was held in the Liberty County Jail following his arrest in January before being extradited to Michigan.

Tyrone Hassel’s father, Tyrone Hassel Jr., was interviewed by the Courier earlier this year. The victim’s father said Kemia Hassel never gave any indication there was trouble in the marriage with his son. He said his daughter-in-law appeared to have been grief stricken following the murder. Kemia Hassel did not attend her husband’s funeral. Tyrone Hassel Jr. said, when he was home in Michigan, he was asked to bring Kemia to the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 11, where she was arrested and charged with the murder of his son.

 

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