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Woman Charged In Vanessa Guillen’s Death Deleted Account In Bid To Conceal Evidence, Spoke Of Fleeing U.S., Prosecutor Says
Cecily Aguilar is accused of helping her boyfriend, Spc. Aaron Robinson, dismember, burn and bury Vanessa Guillen's body after he killed her with a hammer.
A Texas woman facing charges connected to the slaying of U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillen deleted her Google account and discussed plans to try to flee the country, according to prosecutors.
A judge denied bond for Cecily Aguilar Tuesday afternoon and ordered her to stay behind bars until her trial after prosecutors outlined Aguilar’s recent activity in jail.
The 22-year-old entered a not guilty plea in court to three counts of conspiracy to tamper with evidence, local station KCEN-TV reports.
Authorities have alleged that Aguilar helped her boyfriend, Spc. Aaron Robinson, dispose of Guillen’s body after he killed her with a hammer on April 22. Both Robinson and Guillen were stationed at Fort Hood in Texas.
In court Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Mark Frazier said Aguilar had deleted Google accounts that belonged to both her and Robinson in an attempt to get rid of evidence, according to the Austin American Statesman.
While in jail, she also allegedly called to ask someone to delete her Facebook page and mentioned in another call from jail that she wanted to flee the country using a $5,000 credit card, Frazier said.
Aguilar’s attorney, Lewis Gainor, denied the charges against the 22-year-old saying that Aguilar “clearly and unequivocally denies” the accusations against her.
“It is supported by probable cause, which is the bare minimum for a case to go forward,” he said. “At this point, she is presumed to be innocent. She has a right to a trial.”
Aguilar’s estranged husband, Keon Aguilar, a former Fort Hood soldier, was also in court in support of his wife.
“They were estranged, but he has not left her side,” Gainor said, according to the local paper. “He supports her and he is here for her and would take her in if she were released.”
Keon Aguilar described his wife as an outgoing person who had recently started to embrace religion.
“There was a time when she really wanted to know more about the relationship I have in God and she would just really draw in on that,” Keon said, according to KCEN-TV.
Natalie Khawam, the attorney representing Guillen’s family, said she found it odd Keon Aguilar had attended the hearing because Cecily Aguilar had been dating Robinson at the time of Guillen's slaying. The family is actually hoping that Keon will choose to to help with the case against his wife.
“We hope to God he has the courage to come forth and disclose what he knows about her because we believe she’s a murderer,” Khawam said.
According to the criminal complaint in the case obtained by KDH News, Robinson killed Guillen on April 22 by striking her with a hammer in an arms room on Fort Hood.
Authorities said he moved the body from Fort Hood to a remote area in Bell County and enlisted Aguilar’s help to dismember the body.
Aguilar allegedly told authorities that Robinson picked her up from a gas station where she worked and together they dismembered the body using an ax or hatchet and a machete-type knife, then tried to burned the remains, according to the affidavit. When the remains would not burn completely, authorities said the couple buried the m in three separate holes.
An indictment against Aguilar, obtained by local station KXXV, alleges that she helped Robinson alter, destroy, mutilate and conceal evidence of the crime from April 22 to July 1.
Robinson killed himself on July 1 as police were approaching him.
Guillen’s family has said the Army private was being sexually harassed before her death.
Khawam compared the way Guillen was killed to how ISIS would kill a soldier.
“They decapitate our soldiers. They dismember them. They light them on fire. [Aguilar] did exactly that to Vanessa, who is a U.S. soldier and I want her to be treated as the same way and punished as a terrorist, because she is,” Khawam said.
Khawam said Guillen’s family plans to meet with President Donald Trump on July 29 in Washington D.C. one day before a bill—known as the #IAmVanessa Guillen bill—will be introduced in Congress.
The bill would allow for third-party investigations into sexual harassment and sexual assault claims by U.S. service members, the local paper reports.
Khawam said the bill should not be considered a Republican or Democrat issue.
“This impacts all our military, every one of them, every single one of them and their children and their families,” she said, according to KCEN-TV.
