Cecily Aguilar.Photo: Bell County Jail
A Texas woman, who was charged in connection with the disappearance of Fort Hood soldierVanessa Guillen, pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to murder after the fact.
Cecily Aguilar, 24, also pleaded guilty to three counts of false statement or representation. She faces up to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Aguilar helped her boyfriend Army SpecialistAaron Robinsondismember and dispose of Guillen’s body “in order to prevent Robinson from being charged with and prosecuted for any crime,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release.
Aguilar also altered and destroyed information contained in a Google account of Robinson and made four “materially false statements” to federal officers, the press release states.
Guillen’s remains were found near the Leon River in Bell County in Texas in June 2020, two months after she went missing from Fort Hood.
Vanessa Guillen.US Army
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Vanessa Guillen March.Carolyn Caster/AP/Shutterstock
Aguilar allegedly said Robinson took Guillen’s body to a bridge near the Leon River, where Robinson and Aguilar cut her body up and set it on fire. When the body didn’t burn completely, the couple put the remains in three separate holes and covered them, according to the complaint.
Her case made national headlines after her disappearance.
Guillen’s family said the small-arms repairer with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment had complained about sexual harassment before she vanished.
Vanessa Guillen.
The Army said Robinson had never harassed Guillen, but her family disputes the claim.
As a result of the findings, the Army fired five officers and non-commissioned officers in Guillen’s Third Cavalry Regiment and planned to take unspecified administrative action against eight other officers.
In November, Netflix released a documentary,I Am Vanessa Guillen, which follows her family’s fight for answers and reform — a journey that took them to Congress and the Oval Office and spurred the passage of theI Am Vanessa Guillen Act, which revamped the way sexual harassment and assault in the military are investigated.
Aguilar’s defense attorney could not be reached for comment.
A sentencing date has not been set.
source: people.com
