Defense witness unable to testify on scheduled date, sentencing postponed for Cecile Aguilar

WACO, TX (KWTX) – United States District Judge Alan D. Albright granted a request to postpone the sentencing date for Cecile Aguilar, the woman who pleaded guilty on Nov. 29, 2022, to one count of accessory after the fact and three counts of making a false statement. , in the brutal shooting death of Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Gillen, court documents obtained by KWTX show.

Aguilar was scheduled to be sentenced on April 5, 2023.

In his motion for a continuance, Aguilar’s defense attorney, Lewis B. Gaynor wrote that the defense team retained a psychiatric expert witness to testify during the sentencing hearing. On March 3, 2023, the defense informed the court that the witness was unavailable to testify on April 5.

“Counsel cannot adequately represent and defend Ms. Aguilar at sentencing without examining the witness in custody,” the motion for a continuance states.

Albright granted the defense team’s request on March 22.

Aguilar faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, a $1 million fine and the possibility of 12 years of supervised release.

He was the only person charged with Guillén’s murder, and was initially blamed for his involvement with Army Specialist Aaron Robinson in dismembering Guillén’s body before burying it in a shallow grave along the Leon River.

Guillen was last seen on the night of April 22, 2020, in the parking lot of his 3rd Cavalry Regiment Engineer Headquarters. His car and barracks room keys and his ID card and wallet were later found in the armory where he worked earlier that day.

More than two months later, on June 30, 2020, contractors working on a wall on the banks of the Leon River discovered the body of a slain soldier.

Aguilar was arrested after officers stopped the van he was riding in on June 30, 2020, at the Fort Hood police station, shortly after Robinson allegedly shot himself when Killeen police officers approached him from the post. was arrested.

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