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By Carey Reeder | Managing Editor

December saw three sentences of individuals who committed murder in Chilton County handed down leading to one life sentence and a pair of 30-year plus sentences for the offenders.

On Dec. 12, Cordarius Glover was sentenced to life in prison by Circuit Judge Patrick Pinkston for the murder of Dante Milliner in April 2022. Glover fired multiple shots from a moving vehicle with one striking Milliner in the head killing him during the murder. The crime took place within the Clanton city limits. The District Attorney of 19th Judicial Circuit CJ Robinson said he was proud of the collaboration between the DA’s office and the Clanton Police Department. He believes the investigation and prosecution of the case was a model of how constant communication allows prosecutors to make better cases.

On Dec. 20, Abraham Perez and Noel Esquivel were both sentenced for the murders of three out-of-state men in Chilton County. Circuit Judge Amanda Baxley sentenced Perez to serve 32 years of a 35-year plea agreement, and Esquivel was sentenced to serve the full 35 years of the plea agreement in the Alabama Department of Corrections. Both Esquivel and Perez pled guilty to Murder to earn the plea agreement.

On July 2, 2021, the burned remains of three victims — Gabriel Alonzo Rios Jr., 24, Gilberto

Munoz Cabrera, 37, and Javier Quintero Gonzalez, 36, were found in an SUV in the woods near County Road 5014 in Chilton County. The three were identified through DNA samples, and investigators determined the victims traveled from Tennessee to Alabama. Autopsies revealed that at least two of the victims suffered gunshot wounds prior to their bodies being burned. It was also revealed during the investigation that both Esquivel and Perez were in the United States illegally and were involved with drug trafficking. Both men were charged with three counts of Murder and one count of Attempted Murder in January 2022.

“This case was solved by a team of dedicated law enforcement, prosecutors and forensics professionals from nearly a dozen agencies across the southeast,” Robinson said in a press release. “This was especially hard because out of three victims and two defendants, only one was in the U.S. legally and everyone was involved in drug trafficking. Our local agencies could easily have deferred to federal and out-of-state agencies to work this case since the only connection to our circuit was the drugs being imported and the dump site for the bodies, but a lack of confidence in potential outcomes kept us motivated to see it through. I am always grateful when we can remove drug dealers and murderers from our communities, and I appreciate the commitment to seeking the truth and pursuing justice by all involved.”