A Texas girl was sentenced to 30 years in jail on Monday for her function in making an attempt to cowl up the killing of Vanessa Guillén, a soldier stationed at Fort Hood, now referred to as Fort Cavazos, whose homicide in 2020 drew widespread consideration to sexual assault within the army and impressed modifications in federal legislation.

The girl, Cecily Aguilar, was the one particular person charged within the dying of Ms. Guillén. In November, Ms. Aguilar pleaded guilty to one count of accessory to homicide after the actual fact and three counts of creating a false assertion at a federal courtroom in Waco, Texas, the place her sentencing listening to was held on Monday.

Specialist Guillén, 20, disappeared on April 22, 2020, at Fort Hood, the third-largest U.S. Army base, after telling buddies that she had been sexually harassed, although officers mentioned she had not made any formal complaints. Months later, on June 30, her stays had been discovered dismembered and burned.

Specialist Guillén’s household has alleged that she was sexually harassed earlier than she was killed, drawing outrage from many and calls from activists for systematic modifications in how the army handles studies of sexual harassment and assault.

In December 2020, the Army disciplined more than a dozen officials after an investigation discovered “major flaws” within the local weather and the tradition of Fort Hood. A federal legislation named for Specialist Guillén took impact on Jan. 1, 2022, requiring that sexual harassment complaints involving service members be despatched to an unbiased investigator. The choice to prosecute sexual assault and sexual harassment shall be made exterior of the commanders of service members, who shall be supplied safety towards retaliation.

Investigators who searched Specialist Guillén’s telephone discovered that the final particular person she texted was one other soldier, Specialist Aaron Robinson. Prosecutors mentioned in courtroom paperwork that she was killed by Specialist Robinson, who struck her head with a hammer and hid her physique in a big field.

Specialist Robinson was initially detained, however a collection of missteps allowed the soldier to flee after which fatally shoot himself earlier than charges were announced, in accordance with an Army report.

In charging paperwork, Justice Department officers mentioned that Specialist Robinson’s girlfriend, Ms. Aguilar, a civilian, had been informed concerning the killing and that the couple had tried to hide it.

“According to court documents, Cecily Aguilar, 25, assisted Army Specialist Aaron Robinson in corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating and concealing evidence — that is, the body of Vanessa Guillén — in order to prevent Robinson from being charged with and prosecuted for any crime,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas said in a statement on Monday.

During the investigation into the disappearance of Specialist Guillén, Ms. Aguilar made 4 false statements to federal investigators, the lawyer’s workplace mentioned, and he or she altered and destroyed info contained in a Google account belonging to Specialist Robinson.

Ms. Aguilar later confessed to taking part in a task within the disposal of Specialist Guillén’s physique, prosecutors mentioned in courtroom paperwork, together with that she helped Specialist Robinson dismember the physique with an ax or a hatchet and a machete-style knife earlier than they buried the stays close to the Leon River.

Natalie Khawam, the Guilléns’ lawyer, mentioned that “gruesome” and “troubling” particulars of how Ms. Aguilar had disposed of Specialist Guillén’s physique had been revealed on the listening to on Monday.

Ms. Khawam mentioned that forensic specialists testified that it was uncommon “that somebody crushes bones the way that they did” and that “the amount of work that went into destroying her body and the evidence” was not one thing they’d seen earlier than.

“Our hope is that today’s sentence brings a sense of relief and justice to the Guillén family, who have endured such pain throughout these past few years,” Jaime Esparza, the U.S. lawyer for the Western District of Texas, mentioned within the assertion. “Ms. Aguilar’s actions were indefensible, and she will now face the maximum penalty for the choices she made.”

Mayra Guillén, Specialist Guillén’s older sister, marked Ms. Aguilar’s sentencing on social media, writing to her sister: “You received justice today.”

“Now there’s closure to the criminal aspect of this case,” Ms. Khawam mentioned.