A U.S. Navy captain
is facing charges after he allegedly misled investigators about a physical fight with a civilian after the man accused the captain of sleeping with his wife.
The civilian, Christopher Tur, was found dead, floating in the water near Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where Capt. John Nettleton was the commanding officer.
According to the Justice Department,
Nettleton, 53, was indicted on charges of obstruction, concealment, falsifying records, and false statements related to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s investigation on the death of
Tur. Tur was a civilian who worked at the base’s Navy Exchange.
The indictment claims that on or about Jan. 9, 2015, Nettleton and Tur both attended a “Hail and Farewell” event at the base’s officer’s club to welcome the new executive officer of the base and to bid goodbye to the outgoing executive officer. Nettleton, Tur, and Tur’s wife consumed alcoholic beverages at the event, and Tur eventually accused Nettleton of
the
affair
.
Although Nettleton returned to his home shortly thereafter, the indictment says that Tur told a civilian resident of the base via a phone call that he was “at the Skipper’s house” and had “knocked the Skipper out.” The civilian also heard Nettleton express similar sentiments on the phone.
During the night of the alleged incident, Nettleton’s daughter was home upstairs and texted a friend saying she left her room and “what I see is this dude standing there on his phone and my dad is lying on the ground I think and like I’m so confused and terrified.”
In a separate text recovered by investigators, she said “my dad’s really drunk and some other dude is here and they’re like getting into a fight downstairs and I’m hiding.” Before heading to bed that night, Nettleton checked in with his daughter.
Tur never returned home, and as officials searched for Tur’s body, they recovered a paper towel in Nettleton’s backyard with a “reddish-brown” stain on it. Nettleton dismissed the discovery and told Navy personnel it was “probably nothing.” Later, DNA testing proved that bloodstains from the towel matched Tur’s DNA, along with several other stains in Nettleton’s home.
Tur’s body was eventually recovered on or about Jan. 11, 2015, in the waters of Guantanamo Bay and an autopsy showed Tur fractured some ribs before drowning. He also had a laceration on his head.
Nettleton failed to report the incident and misled officials searching for Tur after the confrontation by saying he had last seen Tur at the event. He also failed to disclose that Tur alleged he was involved in an affair with Tur’s wife and denied being involved with her when asked directly if they were romantically involved.
Furthermore, he instructed Tur’s wife to mislead Navy investigators and deny that they were engaged in an affair.
Nettleton, who was arrested Wednesday, was fired from heading the naval station in Guantanamo days after Tur’s body was found for unspecified “misconduct.” Navy Region Southeast said he was ousted by Rear Adm. Mary Jackson “due to loss of confidence in Nettleton’s ability to command.”
