The girlfriend of the man suspected of murdering Vanessa Guillen has pleaded guilty to involvement in the crime.
Aaron Robinson’s girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact and making a false statement after helping her boyfriend hide Guillen’s body. They dismembered the victim and tried to burn the evidence.
The Guillen family’s attorney said the guilty plea was another step toward justice for Vanessa Guillen. The attorney said she would never stop fighting for her clients.
Aguilar initially claimed she was at home with Robinson the night Guillen disappeared. However, she has since confessed to being there after Guillen’s body was found. Aguilar and Robinson had shared multiple phone calls the night of Guillen’s disappearance.
Guillen’s remains were discovered 23 miles from where she was last seen, after she was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Her killer was later captured and sent to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to be identified.
Vanessa Guillen was serving in the Army when she mysteriously disappeared from her base and was later found dead, having been allegedly killed by another soldier. She was sexually harassed by a superior before her disappearance in April of 2020.
Aaron Robinson, Guillen’s killer, was the last person she texted before her disappearance. He killed himself before his charges were announced.
The investigation into Vanessa Guillen’s murder found Fort Hood had a command climate that was permissive of sexual harassment and sexual assault. A review of the Army’s Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention Program found structural failures, including a lack of training, resourcing and staffing at the Fort Hood SHARP office.
The investigation found 93 credible accounts of sexual assault and 217 unreported accounts of sexual harassment at 1st Cavalry Division, but only 59 were reported. The names of the battalion level and below commanders and leaders who received administrative action were not released.
The Army’s Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention Program failed to curb sexual assault and harassment on bases due to structural failures, and the command climate failed to practice the program’s core values below the brigade level, which led to less trust in the program.