Texas Woman Pleads Guilty in Connection With Death of Fort Hood Soldier Vanessa Guillen

Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, in a file photo. Fort Hood Press Center

The only suspect to be arrested in the case regarding the disappearance and murder of Texas U.S. Army Specialist Vanessa Guillen in 2020 pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a slew of charges.

Cecily Aguilar, 24, pleaded guilty to four charges, including one count of accessory to murder after the fact and three counts of false statement or representation, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

A sentencing date has not yet been set for Aguilar, the only living suspect in Guillen’s killing.

She faces up to 30 years in prison plus three years of supervised release and a $1 million fine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said.

Guillen was a soldier stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, the third-largest Army base in the U.S., when she disappeared on April 22, 2020. She was last seen in the parking lot of Fort Hood’s Regimental Engineer Squadron Headquarters.

Her remains were later found on July 1.

Authorities believe that Aguilar helped her boyfriend, Army Specialist Aaron Robinson, in “corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating and concealing evidence”—the body of Vanessa Guillen—in order to prevent Robinson from being charged with and prosecuted for any crime after he allegedly sexually harassed her.

Robinson was initially detained by authorities but managed to escape and died by suicide on the day that Guillén’s remains were found after shooting himself.

Dawn Gomez holds her 3-year-old granddaughter, Saryia Greer, who waves at Vanessa Guillen's mural painted by Alejandro "Donkeeboy" Roman Jr. on the side of Taqueria Del Sol, in Houston, on July 2, 2020. Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle via AP

‘Another Step on Long Path Toward Justice’

“Aguilar also altered and destroyed information contained in a Google account of Robinson. During the investigation into the disappearance of Vanessa Guillen, Aguilar made four materially false statements to federal investigators,” prosecutors said.

Family members of Guillén, who was 20 when she was killed, claimed that superiors had sexually harassed her prior to her death. A report by the U.S. Army said that her sexual harassment complaints had been ignored by Fort Hood officers.

“Cecily Aguilar’s guilty plea today was another step on the long path toward justice for Vanessa, my client, and her courageous family,” attorney Natalie Khawam, who represents the Guillén family, said in a statement on Tuesday.

In September 2020, the army launched an investigation into the leadership at Fort Hood following a number of deaths and disappearances linked to the post, including Guillen.

The investigation, led by General John Murray, head of the Army’s Futures Command, focused on Guillen’s disappearance and death, as well as her reports of sexual harassment, and ran alongside an independent review that began in August.

In January of this year, President Joe Biden signed into law the “I Am Vanessa Guillén Act,” making sexual harassment a crime for members of the military and removing reports of incidents of sexual harassment from their chain of command to a third party instead.

The Epoch Times has contacted Aguilar’s defense lawyer for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.