A Navy SEAL who was charged in the 2017 death of a Green Beret pleaded not guilty on Friday to murder.
Special Operations Chief Tony DeDolph entered his plea before a military court in Norfolk, Virginia, according to the Navy and his lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse. DeDolph is one of four troops, two SEALs and two Marines, who were charged following the death of Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar in Mali during a botched hazing incident.
According to pretrial testimony, DeDolph, along with Chief Special Warfare Operator Adam Matthews, Marine Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell, and Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madero-Rodriguez, planned on restraining Melgar with duct tape and recording it in order to embarrass him sexually. Melgar died of strangulation after DeDolph held him in a chokehold.
“I don’t think any reasonable person that has had the opportunity to look at the investigation would in any way believe that anyone intended to hurt or cause the death of Staff Sgt. Melgar that night,” Stackhouse told the Washington Examiner.
When pressed on the allegations that the men intended to sexually assault Melgar, Stackhouse said, “It was never the intent to engage in any sexual assault or sexual denigration, or anything like that,” adding that attempts to include those allegations in a previous hearing were denied.
DeDolph and Matthews were assigned to SEAL Team 6 at the time Melgar died. Maxwell and Madero-Rodriguez were assigned to Marine Special Operations Command. All five men were in Mali performing a counterterrorism mission at the U.S. Embassy in Bamako.
Matthews and Maxwell pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 2019, leaving DeDolph and Madero-Rodriguez as the final two defendants. In addition to murder, DeDolph faces charges involving conspiracy, obstruction of justice, burglary, involuntary manslaughter, and hazing.
“DeDolph also selected to have his case decided by military officers and enlisted members both,” Stackhouse told the Washington Examiner.
While court martial juries generally are made up of officers, the request to have enlisted members included in the jury panel may be an attempt to draw sympathy, according to former Marine Corps Judge Gary Solis, who noted the move could backfire.
“He’s going to get guys who’ve been around the block, who have a realistic view of service life and military justice,” Solis told the Washington Examiner. “When I was a prosecutor, I never feared when I heard that the accused was asking for enlisted members. As a matter of fact, I was a little bit pleased because I knew most of the time, the senior members that came on were hammers.”
Navy Capt. Michael Luken, the judge overseeing the case, denied the defense’s request to dismiss the felony murder charge, but he ordered the Navy to hire a forensic pathologist, a DNA analyst, and a crime scene expert “that were previously denied by prosecutors,” Stackhouse said. A forensic medical trauma expert may also be brought in.
Jay Sullivan, a lawyer who represented Lt. Jacob Portier during former Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher’s murder case, said he believes prosecutors are “overreaching” on the murder charge.
“According to the pleas taken under oath, this was an accident,” Sullivan told the Washington Examiner, adding that a manslaughter charge would be more fitting.
But Solis said that from what he has seen, the government’s case is “pretty clear-cut.”
If found guilty of murder, DeDolph and Madero-Rodriguez could face life in prison without parole, reduction to the military’s lowest rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances, and “either a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge,” according to the Navy.
