Texas Woman Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison Over Death of US Soldier Vanessa Guillen

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

A woman charged in connection with the 2020 disappearance and murder of Texas U.S. Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison on Aug. 14, the Justice Department announced.

Cecily Aguilar, 25, pleaded guilty in November to four charges in relation to Spc. Guillen’s death, including one count of accessory to murder after the fact and three counts of false statement or representation.

“Our hope is that today’s sentence brings a sense of relief and justice to the Guillen family, who have endured such pain throughout these past few years,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas in a statement announcing Ms. Aguilar’s sentencing.

“Ms. Aguilar’s actions were indefensible, and she will now face the maximum penalty for the choices she made. I’m grateful for our law enforcement partners who worked tirelessly on this case, as their dedication was essential in bringing this defendant to justice,” he added.

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

Police discovered her remains about two months later near the Leon River.

Chief Suspect Dies

According to prosecutors, Ms. Aguilar assisted her then-boyfriend, Army Spc. Aaron Robinson, in corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating, and concealing the body of Spc. Guillen, in an attempt to prevent him from being prosecuted for any crime.

Prosecutors allege that Spc. Robinson murdered Spc. Guillen, who was 20 at the time of her death, with a hammer, and later dismembered and dumped her body.

According to court documents, Spc. Robinson later told Ms. Aguilar that he had dumped Spc. Guillen’s body in a remote site in Bell County and enlisted her help in disposing of it.

Spc. Robinson died by suicide when authorities confronted him.

The Justice Department further claims that Ms. Aguilar altered and destroyed information contained in a Google account belonging to Mr. Robinson.

“During the investigation into the disappearance of Vanessa Guillen, Aguilar made four materially false statements to federal investigators,” the Justice Department said.

‘Vanessa Guillen Served This Country’

Following her death, Spc. Guillen’s family claimed that superiors had sexually harassed her before she was murdered, and a report by the U.S. Army said that her sexual harassment complaints had been ignored by Fort Hood officers.

Spc. Guillen’s death and the death of others prompted an investigation by the United States into the leadership at Fort Hood, led by Gen. John Murray, head of the Army’s Futures Command, which led to multiple senior leaders being suspended or reprimanded.

State and federal lawmakers also passed legislation—the I Am Vanessa Guillen Act— in 2021, aimed at addressing the response of the Department of Defense to sex-related offenses committed against members of the Armed Forces.

The legislation also allows members to confidentially report a complaint of sexual harassment to an individual who is not in the immediate chain of command and to a third party instead.

In a statement to the court shared with CNN on Monday, Natalie Khawam, the attorney representing Spc. Guillen’s family, said Ms. Aguilar’s sentence “needs to set the example for anyone that will ever contemplate mutilating, destroying, and/or concealing a body.”

“Your honor, Vanessa Guillen served this country,” Ms. Khawam said. “It’s imperative that you set the appropriate precedent today so heinous acts like this will never occur on our turf again.”