Woman pleads guilty in connection to death of Vanessa Guillén at Fort Hood

A Texas woman who helped mutilate and conceal the body of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén pleaded guilty on Tuesday to aiding Guillén’s killer and lying to federal investigators.

Cecily Aguilar pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to murder after the fact and three counts of making false statements, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. Aguilar faces up to 30 years in prison.

Guillén was reportedly bludgeoned to death by fellow Army Spc. Aaron Robinson at Fort Hood in April 2020. Her dismembered remains were found in June 2020. Robinson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound soon after.

Aguilar assisted Robinson, her boyfriend at the time, in “corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating and concealing evidence—that is, the body of Vanessa Guillen—in order to prevent Robinson from being charged with and prosecuted for any crime,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a press release.

The 24-year-old also altered and destroyed information in Robinson’s Google account and lied to federal investigators on several occasions, authorities said.

Guillén reportedly told her family before her death that she was being sexually harassed by one of her sergeants at Fort Hood but declined to report it for fear of retaliation. Guillén’s death led to widespread calls to address sexual harassment and violence in the military.