3rd Lejeune Marine charged in triple shooting

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. – Three Camp Lejeune-based Marines now face charges in a triple shooting here Jan. 3.

Sgt. Michael Sabestian Haridat, 28, and Lance Cpl. Erwin J. Rodriguez Jr., 21, and Lance Cpl. Robert J. Goense, 19, riflemen with 3rd Battalion 6th Marines, each face one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

Authorities say the Marines were involved in an early morning scuffle outside of a restaurant that ended when three men were shot. All three victims, Christian Onate, 29, Jonni Aidoo, 27, and Enation Roney, 27, were taken to area hospitals.

Haridat allegedly shot Onate and Rodriguez was charged with allegedly shooting Aidoo. They were treated and released earlier this week. Roney, who was allegedly shot by Goense, remains in Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

Haridat, of the Bronx, N.Y., was arrested earlier this week on charges of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver marijuana, manufacturing marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He joined the Corps in January 2002, according to a II Marine Expeditionary Force release. He has served two tours in Iraq, the first in 2007 and again in 2008.

Rodriguez, of Arlington, Va., joined the Corps in July 2006, according to a II MEF release. He has also served two tours in Iraq in 2007 and 2008.

Goense, of Union, N.J., joined the Corps in July 2008.

All three are in the Onslow County Jail. Police continue to investigate the shootings and would not release further details.

Lejeune policeman charged in death of son

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A Camp Lejeune civilian law enforcement officer has been charged in the November 2009 accidental shooting death of his young son.

Robert John Lewis, 27, of Jacksonville, N.C., was charged Wednesday morning with involuntary manslaughter, possession of a weapon of mass destruction, contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and failing to secure a firearm from a minor, according to an Onslow County Sheriff’s Office release.

The charges come nearly two months after Lewis’s 3-year-old son, Tyler Lewis, shot himself in the forehead Nov. 16 with a .40-caliber pistol he found on a table in the family’s home, according to authorities. He died shortly after the gun fired.

Lewis was working on the base when the shooting occurred. His wife was at home with their son at the time.

He has been placed in Onslow County Jail on $55,000 bond.

2 Lejeune Marines charged in triple shooting

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Two Camp Lejeune-based Marines have been charged in a triple shooting here earlier this week.

Sgt. Michael Sabestian Haridat, 28, and Lance Cpl. Erwin J. Rodriguez Jr., 21, both riflemen with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, were charged Thursday with one count each of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

Authorities say the Marines were involved in an early Sunday morning scuffle outside of a restaurant that ended with three men shot. All three victims, Christian Onate, 29, Jonni Aidoo, 27, and Enation Roney, 27, were taken to area hospitals.

Haridat allegedly shot Onate, and Rodriguez was charged with allegedly shooting Aidoo. They were treated and released earlier this week. Roney remains in critical condition at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

Haridat, of the Bronx, N.Y., was arrested earlier this week on charges of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver marijuana, manufacturing marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Another Stupid Soldier

Airman 1st Class Corey Hernandez pulled the trigger. Nothing was supposed to happen, except the metallic click of the hammer striking the firing pin.

Instead, the pistol fired.

Senior Airman Michael Garcia fell to the floor of his apartment, just outside Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., a bullet in his head from his own gun fired by one of his best friends.

Police called what the airmen were doing “horseplay.”

The men had been playing a game, one that tests faith and wills, one increasingly common in the military. Two months ago, four Marines received time in the brig for their roles in the death of a Marine killed in Iraq while playing the game, called Trust.

Until Dec. 10, when the 23-year-old Garcia died, the Air Force had not had any reported incidents of airmen playing Trust.

Today, Hernandez, 21, faces charges of manslaughter and use of a weapon to commit a felony. A preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 11 in Sarpy County Court, the local civilian jurisdiction. If convicted of both charges, he could be sentenced to up to 70 years in prison, according to Nebraska sentencing guidelines.

Marine sergeant charged with sexual battery of a minor and indecent liberties with a child (3 yrs.) with the knowledge that the child was mentally disabled

A North Carolina-based noncommissioned officer faces charges for allegedly sexually abusing a 3-year-old.

Sgt. Duane F. Bachesta, 26, of St. Clair, Illinois,, with 2nd Intelligence Battalion out of Camp Lejeune, was charged Monday with sexual battery of a minor and indecent liberties with a child with the knowledge that the child was mentally disabled, according to warrants.

Bachesta, an imagery analyst, was placed in Onslow County jail on a $20,000 bond, according to a II Marine Expeditionary Force release.

He joined the Corps in March 2002 and served an eight-month tour in Afghanistan last year.

This incident remains under investigation.

Kin of slain Marine Maria Lauterbach sue for wrongful death

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — The family of a slain Marine lance corporal has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the 22-year-old former Marine accused of killing her.

The wrongful death suit was filed in Onslow County, N.C., on Monday on the two-year anniversary of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach’s disappearance.

Cesar Laurean will go to trial in June in Lauterbach’s death. Her burned body was found buried behind Laurean’s house.

Lauterbach was about eight months pregnant when she died, but DNA tests revealed that Laurean wasn’t the father.

The lawsuit names Laurean and his wife, Christina Laurean, as defendants. It seeks damages in excess of $10,000. Actual damages will be determined at trial.

Lejeune IDs NCO killed on base

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A Camp Lejeune Marine accused late last week of killing a noncommissioned officer is now in the base brig after spending several hours in a local hospital being treated for self-inflicted wounds, Marine officials said Monday.

Charges are pending against Pvt. Jonathan Law, 21, in the death Friday morning of Cpl. Joshua E. Hartzell, 22, according to a Marine news release.

Officials have not said how Hartzell died, confirming only that he was not shot. His body was found in the woods near Lejeune’s French Creek area.

Initially, Marine officials said the victim had been stabbed but later retracted that information.

Hartzell, of Hamilton, Ohio, was an electro-optical ordnance repairer with 2nd Maintenance Battalion, Marine officials said. He enlisted in September 2006.

Law, of Clark County, Nev., is a supply administration clerk with 2nd Supply Battalion. He was taken to the brig Saturday night from Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, N.C., officials said. They have not disclosed the nature of his wounds.

Law joined the Corps in August 2006 and served a seven-month tour in Iraq beginning in August 2007.

Preschoolers with parent at war are more aggressive, study finds

CHICAGO — Preschoolers with a parent away at war were more likely to show aggression than other young children in military families, according to the first published research on how the very young react to wartime deployment.

Hitting, biting and hyperactivity — “the behaviors parents really notice” — were more frequent when a parent was deployed, said lead author Dr. Molinda Chartrand, an active duty pediatrician in the U.S. Air Force.

The study, which was small and included fewer than 200 children, adds to previous evidence of the stress that deployment puts on families. Last year, a study of almost 1,800 Army families worldwide found that reports of child abuse and neglect were 42% higher during times when the soldier-parent was deployed.

This time, researchers looked at families living on a large Marine base in 2007. (The base wasn’t identified in the study.) Children, 3 to 5 years old, with a deployed parent scored an average of five points higher for behavior problems on two questionnaires widely used in child psychology than did the children whose Marine-parents weren’t deployed.

About 1 in 5 of the older preschoolers with a parent at war displayed troubling emotional or behavioral signs.

Authorities: Marine confessed to killing wife

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A Marine charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife had confessed to the killing in a 911 call, police said Tuesday.

Cpl. Cody Daniel Richardson, 22, of Carroll, N.H., was charged in the death of his 21-year-old wife, Jessy, Jacksonville police said. He was held under a $1 million bond in the Onslow County jail.l

Chief Michael Yaniero told a news conference that Richardson confessed to a 911 operator that he strangled his wife, but an autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.

Yaniero said officers went to the couple’s apartment Monday and found the Marine officer outside and the woman’s body inside.

Authorities said the couple had an argument that resulted in her death and it appeared the woman had been dead for up to two days.

Corpsman pleads guilty to role in deadly game

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A Navy corpsman pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges he pointed a loaded gun at a Marine in his unit while playing a dangerous game called “Trust.”

Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Spencer Hamer, 23, was sitting in the back of a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in Iraq in November 2008 when he aimed his 9mm at Lance Cpl. Emerson Boutin and asked “Do you trust me?” The game was popular with members of their unit, 2nd section, Scout Platoon, 2nd Tank Battalion, and ultimately resulted in the death of another Marine from their battalion, military investigators say.

A military judge sentenced Hamer to two months in the brig and reduction in rank to hospitalman. During his special court-martial at Camp Lejeune, where 2nd Tanks is based, he pleaded not guilty to additional charges of dereliction of duty and failure to report.

Hamer is at least the third member of his section to be punished for playing Trust.

Lance Cpl. Patrick Malone died in Iraq on March 10, investigators say, after Cpl. Mathew Nelson allegedly shot him during a game of Trust. Nelson is expected to plea guilty Thursday to involuntary manslaughter and several counts of reckless endangerment, Marine officials say.

The Trust game was typically instigated by a noncommissioned officer who would partially insert a magazine into his M9 and pretend to rack the slide so it would appear a round was in the chamber, Marines in the unit told investigators after Malone’s death. The Marine holding the gun would then ask a junior Marine, “Do you trust me?” before either pulling the trigger or lowering the gun and clearing it.

Related reading

• Can deadly ‘Trust’ game be stopped?

2 Marines indicted in Army nurse death in NC

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Two Camp Lejeune Marines have been indicted in the killing of an Army nurse whose burned and dismembered remains were found in a shallow North Carolina grave last summer.

The Cumberland County deputy clerk’s office said Friday a grand jury indicted Cpl. John Wimunc and Cpl. Kyle Alden earlier this week in the death of 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc.

John Wimunc faces charges of first-degree murder, second-degree arson and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson. Alden was indicted on charges of being an accessory after the fact to first degree murder, second-degree arson and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson.

John and Holley Wimunc were getting a divorce about the time her body was found.

Messages left for attorneys were not immediately returned.

DA: Laurean extradition expected this week

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A Marine corporal who has been fighting extradition from a Mexican jail will soon be returned to the U.S., where he faces charges of killing a pregnant Marine.

Cpl. Cesar Laurean will be transferred to federal law enforcement officials this week, Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson told WITN, a Jacksonville-area TV station.

The 22-year-old Marine, accused of killing 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach in December 2007, will be transferred to Texas. It’s unclear when Laurean would be returned to Onslow County, where he has been indicted on charges of first-degree murder.

Onslow authorities say Laurean killed Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape, and then burned her body. Lauterbach was in her third trimester of pregnancy when authorities uncovered her charred remains in a shallow grave in Laurean’s backyard in January 2008. Both Marines were assigned to Camp Lejeune’s 2nd Marine Logistics Group.

Laurean fled to his native Mexico and was captured by Mexican authorities in April 2008. His Jacksonville-based attorney, Dick McNeil, has said his client will plea not guilty.

Lejeune staff NCO faces sex charges

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A North Carolina-based staff non-commissioned officer faces sex-related charges, including felony secret peeping.

Staff Sgt. Dustin Paul Cosper, 38, of Camp Lejeune-based 2nd Radio Battalion, was arrested Monday. He also was charged with second-degree sexual offense and crime against nature, according to an Onslow County Sheriff’s Office statement.

Authorities said Cosper was drinking with his wife and a young relative the evening of March 7. He told authorities he didn’t know how much alcohol the victim consumed, “but he was aware that she was in a drunken state,” according to the statement.

After the victim went to bed, Cosper told investigators he went to where she was sleeping and sexually assaulted her, admitting he’d been sexually attracted to her for about three years, the release said.

His bond was set at $50,000 and he was scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday.

Cosper is an electronics maintenance technician who has served two tours in Iraq, according to II Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman 1st Lt. Phil Klay. Cosper joined the Corps on Aug. 21, 1994.

Marine gets 6 years for fatal DUI wreck

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Sgt. Evan Bunnell doesn’t remember the crash.

He does remember getting into his pickup, after drinking about a dozen beers at different bars last summer, Bunnell told a military judge during his Feb. 26 court-martial at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Members of his command told Bunnell later that he hit a car carrying two Marines that night, June 22.

One of the men, Lance Cpl. Bradlee Wilber, was killed.

Feds charge former Marine with Obama threats

RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal prosecutors have charged a former Marine based at Camp Lejeune with threatening President Barack Obama before he took office.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Raleigh said Thursday a federal grand jury has returned an indictment against Kody Brittingham, 20. He is charged with making threats against the president-elect.

The indictment was handed up Wednesday.

Brittingham was administratively separated from the Marine Corps on Jan. 3, following a December arrest on state charges he attempted armed robbery of a Jacksonville hotel. He remains jailed in Onslow County.

The Marine Corps says Brittingham was a lance corporal who joined the Marine Corps in July 2007. He never deployed with the Marines.

See also:  Lejeune Marines Linked to Hotel Robberies

Camp Lejeune Marine, Sgt. Darryl L. Bennett, Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Crimes

A noncommissioned officer from Camp Lejeune, N.C., was sentenced to 16 years in the brig and dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corps on Thursday after admitting he sexually assaulted a juvenile relative over a three-year period, officials said.

During his special court-martial at Camp Lejeune, Sgt. Darryl L. Bennett, 37, with 2nd Supply Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, pleaded guilty to charges of rape, sexual assault and sodomy. The military judge, Lt. Col. Robert Ward, reduced Bennett’s rank to private and ordered that he forfeited all of pay and allowances.

Bennett joined the Corps on June 30, 1996, and was trained as an ammunition supply technician, officials said.

Marine Cpl. Jonathan M. Gould charged with attacking pregnant wife with hammer

A North Carolina-based Marine has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly beating his pregnant wife with a hammer, authorities said.

Cpl. Jonathan M. Gould, 24, who is assigned to Camp Lejeune’s Weapons Training Battalion, had his initial court appearance Monday morning at the Onslow County Courthouse in Jacksonville, N.C. His bond was set at $1 million, according to a court clerk.

Lejeune Marines Linked to Hotel Robberies

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — Four Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., arrested Tuesday for allegedly breaking into several vehicles, face multiple charges after local authorities linked them to two armed robberies at Jacksonville hotels.