Twenty-year-old Specialst Vanessa Guillén disappeared April 22, 2020. Credit: Facebook / Find Vanessa Guillen

Cecily Aguilar was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for her role in the 2020 death of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén. The sentence was the maximum possible penalty faced by the 25-year-old Aguilar.

On Nov. 29, 2022, Aguilar pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to murder after the fact and three counts of false statement or representation after helping her now-deceased boyfriend, Spc. Aaron Robinson, conceal Guillén’s remains, according to court documents. Aguilar also destroyed digital evidence in the case and made false statements to federal investigators.

Robinson is suspected of killing Guillén in April 2020 in an arms room at Fort Hood, earlier this year renamed Fort Cavazos. Federal and state authorities believe Robinson beat Guillén with a hammer before recruiting Aguilar to help him dismember and burn Guillén’s body and bury it in three shallow holes near the Leon River, roughly 20 miles from the base.

Robinson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound when he was approached by Killeen police, U.S. Marshals and Army criminal investigators July 1, 2020, leaving Aguilar as the sole person charged in connection with the murder.

Mayra Guillén — Vanessa’s older sister and founder of the I Am Vanessa Guillén Foundation — said during a Monday press conference that Aguilar faced the soldier’s family and asked for forgiveness, which “really took [Guillén] by surprise.”

Guillén’s case drew nationwide attention to sexual assault in the military. It also inspired the first law in U.S. military history blocking ranking commanders from deciding whether to prosecute service members accused of serious crimes such as manslaughter, stalking and domestic violence. Instead, independent prosecutors now make that call.

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This article appears in Aug 9-22, 2023.

Nina Rangel uses nearly 20 years of experience in the foodservice industry to tell the stories of movers and shakers in the food scene in San Antonio. As the Food + Nightlife Editor for the San Antonio...