AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas girl was sentenced Monday to 30 years in jail for serving to get rid of the physique of a U.S. soldier, whose 2020 killing sparked a motion of ladies talking out about sexual abuse within the navy and led to adjustments in how they’ll report it, in response to the Guillén household’s legal professional.
Cecily Aguilar is the one suspect arrested within the demise of Vanessa Guillén, who was killed at Fort Cavazos, previously often called Fort Hood, close to Killeen, Texas. Aguilar was 24 years outdated when she pleaded responsible in November at a federal court docket in Waco, Texas, to at least one rely of accent to homicide after the actual fact and three counts of constructing a false assertion, in response to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The sentence got here after hours of testimony from attorneys, specialists and Guillén’s household.
Aguilar aided boyfriend Army Spc. Aaron Robinson, 20, of Calumet City, Illinois, in dismembering and disposing of Guillén’s physique in a rural, wooded space in Killeen, in response to federal and state authorities. Robinson died by suicide on July 1, 2020, the day Guillén’s stays had been discovered.
“We finally have closure in this case,” mentioned legal professional Natalie Khawam, who represents Guillén’s household.
Guillén was declared lacking in April 2020, when her household mentioned they didn’t hear from her for an uncommon period of time after she was known as in for a shift within the navy base’s armory room.
According to a prison criticism, Aguilar mentioned she and Robinson – who authorities accuse of bludgeoning Guillén to demise on the base – disposed of her physique by mutilating it and hiding the stays in close by woods.
Two weeks after Guillén’s physique was discovered, Aguilar pleaded not responsible to conspiracy costs. Later, a decide dismissed her authorized group’s try and throw out her confession as a result of she mentioned she had not been learn her Miranda rights on the time her assertion was taken.
Guillén’s household has mentioned they imagine she was sexually harassed throughout her time on the Texas navy base. While Army officers have mentioned they don’t imagine Robinson harassed Guillén, they admitted in a report a 12 months later that Guillén was harassed by one other soldier on the base.
Following Guillén’s demise, her household’s claims that she was harassed and assaulted on the Texas base ignited a motion on social media of former and energetic service members who shared their experiences at navy bases all through the nation utilizing the hashtag #IAmVanessaGuillen.
Then-U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy mentioned throughout a go to to the Texas base that it had one of many highest charges of homicide, sexual assault and harassment within the Army, later including that the patterns of violence had been a direct results of ” management failures. “
State and federal lawmakers handed laws in 2021 honoring Guillén that eliminated some authority from commanders and gave survivors extra choices to report abuse and harassment. Army officers disciplined 21 commissioned and non-commissioned officers in reference to Guillén’s demise.
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