Texas woman who helped hide U.S. soldier Vanessa Guillén’s body sentenced to 30 years
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas woman was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for helping dispose of the body of a U.S. soldier, whose 2020 killing sparked a movement of women speaking out about sexual abuse in the military and led to changes in how they can report.
Cecily Aguilar was the only suspect arrested in the death of Vanessa Guillén, who was killed at Ft. Cavazos, formerly known as Ft. Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Aguilar was 24 years old when she pleaded guilty in federal court in Waco, Texas, in November to one count of accessory to murder after the fact and three counts of making a false statement, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
The sentence came after hours of testimony from attorneys, experts and Guillén’s family.
Aguilar aided her boyfriend Army Spc. Aaron Robinson, 20, of Calumet City, Ill., in dismembering and disposing of Guillén’s body in a rural wooded area in Killeen, according to federal and state authorities. Robinson died by suicide on July 1, 2020, the day Guillén’s remains were found.
A family lawyer says Army investigators have identified the body of a soldier who vanished more than two months ago from a base in Texas.
“We finally have closure in this case,” said attorney Natalie Khawam, who represents Guillén’s family.
Guillén was declared missing in April 2020, after her family said they hadn’t heard from her for an unusual amount of time since she’d been called in for a shift in the military base’s armory room.
According to a criminal complaint, Aguilar said she and Robinson — whom authorities accuse of bludgeoning Guillén to death on the base — mutilated Guillén’s body and hid the remains in nearby woods.
Two weeks after Guillén’s body was found, Aguilar pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges. Later, a judge dismissed her legal team’s attempt to throw out her confession on the grounds that she had not been read her Miranda rights at the time her statement was taken.
Mourners honor Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen, whose death has prompted a new push for changes in how the military handles sexual abuse and harassment.
Guillén’s family has said they believe she was sexually harassed during her time at the Texas military base. Army officials have said they do not believe Robinson harassed Guillén, but admitted in a report a year later that another soldier at the base had harassed her.
Her family’s claims that she was not only harassed but assaulted at the Texas base ignited a movement on social media of former and active service members who shared similar experiences they’d had at military bases throughout the country, using the hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen.
Then-U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said during one visit to the Texas base that it had one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the Army, and later added that the pattern of violence was a direct result of “leadership failures.”
State and federal lawmakers passed legislation in 2021 in Guillén’s honor that removed some authority from commanders and gave survivors more options for reporting abuse or harassment. Army officials disciplined 21 commissioned and noncommissioned officers in connection with Guillén’s death.
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