Kate Andrews

Chief Petty Officer Adam C. Matthews told a military court that he had agreed to help “remediate,” or haze, Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar as punishment for leaving behind other commandos instead of leading them to a social gathering, as he had promised.

At the time, the commandos were in Bamako, the Malian capital, on a secret assignment.

During the struggle, another SEAL member, Special Operations Chief Tony E. DeDolph, put Melgar in a chokehold, Matthews said during his testimony. As they were drinking, the other commandos decided to confront the sergeant, Matthews said.

A military medical examiner has ruled that Melgar’s death was a “homicide by asphyxiation,” or strangulation.

In exchange for a lighter sentence, Matthews agreed to cooperate in proceedings involving the other commandos, DeDolph and two Marines, Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez and Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell Jr.

In addition to Matthews’ 12-month prison sentence — the maximum judgment allowed in a special court-martial — he was demoted by two ranks. He called the June 2017 attack in Mali “juvenile” and admitted to impeding the investigation, saying that he and DeDolph had decided to “own this event” to keep the two Marines out of trouble.

Matthews also apologized to Melgar’s family and those in Special Operations.

“The Navy expected me to lead,” he said during his sentencing testimony. “I am tormented by my complacency when my teammates required my guidance and bold, corrective action. This was my fault.”

Matthews said he had arrived in Mali only 36 hours before the confrontation and had spent only 30 minutes with Melgar. He also testified that the commandos roused the sergeant’s supervisor around 5:30 a.m. to approve what he loosely described as a hazing.

It was not clear if the supervisor understood what he had authorized before he went back to sleep.

Melgar’s wife, Michelle Melgar, said she forgave Matthews and thanked him for coming forward with “some of the truth” after she and other family members, including her two sons, had struggled with their loss.

She said she had last spoken to her husband about three hours before he died and had a bad feeling when he did not promptly return her texts the next morning.

“I knew it before they knocked on the door,” Melgar said, referring to the Army chaplain and notification officer who came to her house to tell her of his death. “I knew they were coming, so I sat there and waited for the doorbell to ring.”

At various points of Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Matthews and Melgar were praised for their combat records.

Melgar had led a team of soldiers from Afghanistan trained to disarm improvised explosives there, one of his commanders said. Matthews also served in Afghanistan and was wounded in the leg, his lawyer said.

Two of Matthews’ childhood friends and his sister described him as loyal and caring, and intent as early as high school on joining the SEALs. But Melgar’s mother, Nitza Melgar, called Matthews “a military assassin trained to kill the enemy.”

Matthews pleaded guilty to conspiracy of assault, committing battery, breaking into Melgar’s quarters, hazing and obstructing justice.

Other charges, including felony murder and involuntary manslaughter, were dismissed after the pretrial agreement.

This article originally appeared in <a id="57d1a171-b5d6-3704-a5e4-bedce3bab4bb" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/16/world/africa/navy-seal-death-green-beret.html">The New York Times</a>.

Navy SEAL Pleads Guilty in Case of Strangled Green Beret

NORFOLK, Va. — A member of the Navy SEALs who pleaded guilty Thursday to restraining an Army Green Beret with duct tape in 2017 as he was being fatally strangled by another commando in Mali was sentenced to a year in military prison.

Navy SEAL pleads guilty in case of strangled Green Beret

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Kate Andrews

Articles written by the author

Navy SEAL pleads guilty in case of strangled Green Beret