The woman accused of helping cover up the brutal murder of solider Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood, Tex., admitted to the crime Tuesday as part of a plea deal.
Cecily Aguilar, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of being an accessory after the fact and three counts of lying to investigators, the Houston Chronicle reported. She faces up to 30 years in prison.
“I hope she gets what she deserves,” Guillen’s sister Mayra wrote on Twitter. “For her to have the nerve to smile at her defense, etc. She has no remorse.”
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Aguilar had been facing 11 charges for helping her then-boyfriend, soldier Aaron Robinson, dismember and hide Guillen’s body and then lying to police about it. Both Robinson and the victim had the rank of specialist.
Robinson, who was 20 years old, died by suicide as police attempted to arrest him in July 2020.
Guillen, also 20, was reported missing in April of that year, and investigators later determined that she was killed on April 22. Her remains were discovered two months later by contractors working on a fence.
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One year after she was killed, the military admitted that Guillen had been sexually harrassed by a supervisorbefore she was killed. Several people throughout the chain of command at Fort Hood were disciplined as a result of the investigation.
Guillen’s family disputed that probe, arguing that Robinson was one of several people who had harassed Guillen and expressing dismay that the supervisor who had been singled out went unnamed publicly.
Tuesday’s guilty plea by Cecily Aguilar comes after a Netflix documentary, “I Am Vanessa Guillen,” came out Nov. 17.
