AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas girl was sentenced Monday to 30 years in jail for serving to eliminate the physique of a U.S. soldier, whose 2020 killing sparked a motion of girls talking out about sexual abuse within the navy and led to adjustments in how they will report it.
Cecily Aguilar is the one suspect arrested within the loss of life 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 Aguilar was 24 years outdated when she pleaded responsible in November at a federal courtroom in Waco, Texas, to at least one depend of accent to homicide after the very fact and three counts of constructing a false assertion, in keeping with the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace. The sentence got here after hours of testimony from attorneys, consultants and Guillén’s household.
Aguilar aided boyfriend Military Spc. Aaron Robinson, 20, of Calumet Metropolis, Illinois, in dismembering and disposing of Guillén’s physique in a rural, wooded space in Killeen, in keeping with federal and state authorities. Robinson died by suicide on July 1, 2020, the day Guillén’s stays had been discovered.
“We lastly have closure on 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 referred to as in for a shift within the navy base’s armory room.
In accordance with a legal grievance, Aguilar mentioned she and Robinson — who authorities accuse of bludgeoning Guillén to loss of life 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 choose dismissed her authorized staff’s try to 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 consider she was sexually harassed throughout her time on the Texas navy base. Whereas Military officers have mentioned they don’t consider Robinson harassed Guillén, they admitted in a report a yr later that Guillén was harassed by one other soldier on the base.
Following Guillén’s loss of life, 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. Military 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 Military, 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. Military officers disciplined 21 commissioned and non-commissioned officers in reference to Guillén’s loss of life.