Texas woman who helped hide US soldier Vanessa Guillén’s body sentenced to 30 years in prison

AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas woman was once sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for serving to get rid of the body of a U.S. soldier, whose 2020 killing sparked a motion of ladies talking out about sexual abuse in the army and led to adjustments in how they are able to document it.

Cecily Aguilar is the one suspect arrested in the loss of life of Vanessa Guillén, who was once killed at Fort Cavazos, previously referred to as Fort Hood, close to Killeen, Texas. Aguilar was once 24 years previous when she pleaded guilty in November at a federal court docket in Waco, Texas, to one rely of accent to homicide after the truth and 3 counts of creating a false remark, in accordance to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Aguilar aided boyfriend Army Spc. Aaron Robinson, 20, of Calumet City, Illinois, in dismembering and getting rid of Guillén’s body in a rural, wooded space in Killeen, in accordance to federal and state government. Robinson died via suicide on July 1, 2020, the day Guillén’s stays have been discovered.

Guillén was once declared lacking in April 2020, when her circle of relatives mentioned they didn’t pay attention from her for an ordinary period of time after she was once known as in for a shift in the army base’s armory room.

According to a criminal complaint, Aguilar mentioned she and Robinson — who government accuse of bludgeoning Guillén to loss of life on the base — disposed of her body via mutilating it and hiding the stays in within sight woods.

Two weeks after Guillén’s body was once discovered, Aguilar pleaded now not to blame to conspiracy fees. Later, a pass judgement on brushed aside her prison crew’s strive to throw out her confession as a result of she mentioned she had now not been learn her Miranda rights on the time her remark was once taken.

Guillén’s circle of relatives has mentioned they imagine she was once sexually stressed all through her time on the Texas army base. While Army officers have mentioned they don’t imagine Robinson stressed Guillén, they admitted in a document a yr later that Guillén was once stressed via every other soldier on the base.

Following Guillén’s loss of life, her circle of relatives’s claims that she was once stressed and assaulted on the Texas base ignited a motion on social media of former and energetic provider participants who shared their reports at army bases right through the rustic the use of the hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen.

Then-U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy mentioned all through a consult with to the Texas base that it had one of the vital highest rates of murder, sexual assault and harassment in the Army, later including that the patterns of violence have been a right away results of ” leadership failures. “

State and federal lawmakers handed law in 2021 honoring Guillén that got rid of some authority from commanders and gave survivors extra choices to document abuse and harassment. Army officers disciplined 21 commissioned and non-commissioned officials in reference to Guillén’s loss of life.