ORLANDO, Fla. — A man will serve the next seven years in prison for his role in laundering drug money across the state. Miguel Aguasvivas was sentenced Tuesday morning at the Federal Court in Orlando.
Katherine Aguasvivas, his wife, was killed back in April of 2024. Federal prosecutors said her husband put her in harm’s way by having her make a drug money run. Now, their 7-year-old daughter is without a mother and Miguel will spend 84 months behind bars.
Miguel blew a kiss to his family and began to cry as he sat for sentencing on federal money laundering charges related to drug proceeds Tuesday.
“It was the unfortunate events of his wife that we believe caused the sentence to be this high,” Brett Meltzer, the defendant’s attorney, said.
“My client had nothing to do with that.”
While Miguel’s attorney spoke with us, Miguel’s family refused to talk. The victim’s family also would not speak to Channel 9. Miguel’s wife, Katherine, died after investigators said she was carjacked in broad daylight at an intersection near Winter Springs.
Court filings show she was taking a trip from Miami to Seminole County to collect roughly $170,000. Prosecutors said that’s where she was met by men who kidnapped her and shot her.
Investigators said she was forced to drive at gunpoint through multiple counties and they later found her car on fire in Osceola County.
Federal prosecutors said Miguel recruited his wife to do this, but his attorney said that isn’t the case.
“It just happened to be that day he couldn’t do it,” Meltzer said. “He asked the wife to do it. She went ahead. He would’ve been the one killed if he would’ve gone.”
The judge will recommend that Miguel serve his sentence in Miami to be closer to his family. His attorney said he plans to appeal the ruling within 14 days.
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