Marine Raider heads to trial for murder of Green Beret in Mali
SSG Logan Melgar
US Army Staff Sergeant Melgar died exactly four years ago (4 June 2017) in Mali while on assignment there with a joint special operations team. He was attacked in, what the men who survived say is, a hazing incident gone horrible wrong. The men who killed him were ostensibly his teammates. Already three of the four accused men have pleaded guilty. This includes Navy Chief Special Warfare Operators Adam C Matthews and Tony DeDolph and Marine Raider Staff Sergeant Kevin Maxwell Jr.
DeDolph pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and received 10 years in prison, reduction to E-1, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge.
Maxwell pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, conspiracy to commit assault, hazing, obstruction of justice and making false official statements. He was sentenced to four years of confinement, reduction in rank to E-1 and a bad conduct discharge.
Matthews pleaded guilty to the conspiracy and related charges and was sentenced to one year of confinement, reduction to petty officer second class and a bad conduct discharge.
The fourth man allegedly involved in Melgar’s killing is now headed to trial.
A Marine Raider headed to trial Monday in the death of an Army Green Beret faces a possible sentence of life without parole.
Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez begins what is scheduled to be a three-week trial at Norfolk Naval Station, Virginia, on charges of conspiracy, assault, obstruction of justice, involuntary manslaughter, hazing, false official statements and felony murder in the June 4, 2017, death of Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar.
You’ll recall what the whole “hazing” incident has been described;
The four men were charged with planning a hazing of Melgar at his off-site residence in Bamako, Mali, on June 4, 2017.
DeDolph and the two Marines had friction working on the counterterrorism team with Melgar and some felt slighted when they said that Melgar had snubbed them by not giving them a ride to a U.S. embassy party.
Melgar had told his wife in phone calls home that he hated the current deployment and was fed up with the “juvenile” behavior of the SEALs and Marines on his team. He didn’t share details and was eager to return home in the coming weeks when his deployment ended.
The four men went on an all-night bar hopping trip where they planned to rush Melgar, pin him down and take sexually compromising photos of the staff sergeant.
The plotters gathered duct tape and a sledgehammer and at about 5 a.m. burst through Melgar’s bedroom door, subduing him as he fought back. DeDolph, a former professional mixed martial arts fighter, put Melgar in a chokehold while the others tried to restrain and duct tape him.
But almost immediately, Melgar stopped breathing.
The four men stopped and began to try to resuscitate him, including a field expedient tracheotomy. Unsuccessful, they took him to a nearby medical clinic. But staff were unable to revive him.
Immediately, the men began to cover up what happened.
Ha ha. What a gag. Funny, right? Swell group of guys. Kidnapping you, binding you up, and then sodomizing you. All for a good laugh I guess.
Thanks to Jeff LPH 3 for sending in the link.
Category: Blue Falcons, Guest Link, GWOT
Prison.
Give ’em a fair trail followed by a fair hanging.
Extreme blue falconism
‘Melgar had snubbed them by not giving them a ride to a U.S. embassy party.’ So petty consternation for ‘not getting a ride’ is perceived as some sort of ‘slight’ against the rest of the Team, as such this ‘perceived slight’ gives some kind of justification for pedantic hazing? Even with as many details disclosed, it still sounds like the story is incomplete or at the very least, a rather funky version-of-events. Were he still alive or somehow able to speak from the grave to defend himself, have to wonder what Staff Sergeant Melgar’s stated version-of-actual-events would’ve been… Yup. A very long stay in prison is exactly where all of them belong.
I vaguely remember reading something about misappropriation of government funds or equipment, and the deceased being a whistleblower. Am I confused?
Herbert – I was wondering the same thing. .
Thanks; I had forgotten.
Yep. Convenient how the allegations have dissipated from the press.
https://sofrep.com/specialoperations/daily-beast-green-beret-murdered-discovering-seals-stealing-cash/
And anecdotally, I saw very few controls on CERP (or similar funds). Basically you had a single person signing for $10-40k and all they had to do was turn in “receipts”.
I can only imagine in the SOF world the controls were even less.
Not an advocate of paperwork for the sake of paperwork or creating a paper trail that could compromise sources. But if you create a system that creates temptation you can create criminal behavior.
Back in my day, there was little accountability for SF cash funds. When I was a SFODA commander in the Flintlock IV UW exercise, I was handed $800 worth of German marks for use during the exercise. The only accounting required for it was a handful of receipts and a statement for the money spent without receipts. IIRC, I turned in with the backup docs the marks we didn’t spend.
Yeah, the “Hazing” story stinks to high heaven.
Unfortunately it’s one of those cases where both the defense and prosecution have an incentive to cover up the truth, for different reasons.
For the defense, the “hazing” story makes the behavior of the defendants seem like a fraternity prank (something that the officer members of the Court Martial board would presumably be familiar with) which may lead to an acquittal or at least a less harsh sentence.
And for the prosecution (US Government) it keeps inquiring minds from finding out just how loosely US $$$ are thrown around by these Special Operations units with little (or no) accountability.
So, yeah, I’m going to go with “Melgar found out his team members were misappropriating funds and was about to drop a dime on them so the guilty team members tried to take some incriminating photos to blackmail him into silence” rather than a Purple Nurple or an Atomic Wedgie gone wrong.
Yep, Mr. Messkit exactly what I recall as well. Melgar’s specialty was forensic accounting. Somewhere along the lines there was a whistle blower statement about special funds. There seems to be a coverup about the official version and they are feeding the press what they want to hear…Marines and Seals are a bunch of hazing juveniles, not “these thugs and criminals (that just happened to be Marines and Seals) that got caught with their hands in the cookie jar” and need to be punished.
Kind of sounds like the typical sensible gun control debate from the left…the guns did it, not the criminals!
Fuck em all and feed em fish heads. Four years? Ten years? Way too light.
NCIS strikes again in this case. One of the investigators started a romantic relationship with a witness.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/lawyer-investigator-of-green-beret-logan-melgar-murder-had-romantic-relationship-with-witness
With name changes being all the rage, I’m going to write my Congressman and suggest NCIS, CID, etc.. have their name changed to keystone cops.
How ‘bout “Nutcase Cockwomble Idiot Shitheads” and “Chickenshits In Dumbfuckery”as additional suggestions?
“No Criminal Investigation Successful”
“Can’t Investigate Dick”
No, they can’t solve crimes, they can, however set people up for a sting by holding something over the head of another GI and then letting that snitch off the hook completely.
Charlie Sundberg was screwed, blued and tattooed by sgt deitz and did a year in Ft Leavenworth because of that useless piece of shit deitz…..
That’s all they are good for…….
I have other damning first hand knowledge about the vaunted CID that angers me beyond the point of no return……
Real fucking asswipes.
Karma has a way of correcting wrongs and if this is true about the fraud and these assholes got away with murder karma will pay them a visit.
*THIS* Wonder if Bubba, Thor, Julio, and “Mr Tiny” Tyrone will take the time to make pictures or videos of the compromising sexual positions they put this POS in?
Thanks to p’man000 for his added linky. Seems as if I had remembered they missing money thing when this FIRST (ht 2 Bim) broke the news feeds. Was doing a quick Google Foo when his linky dropped in. That linky led to other linkys with more details of Sgt Melgar’s Family and all of the lies that his widow had to put up with, including lies from some of the notification team.
And yeah, no where near enough punishment for what these dirtbags did.
From the notification team—beyond it being classified?!
I now wonder if these clowns were told to take the sword or else. You can serve ten years or less or get hung out to dry and serve life. This could be a move the military to protect others up the food chain where the real big money theft occurred.
4 Drunk testosterone filled guys with a grudge who are trained killers, Duct tape and a sledge hammer wanting to “prank” someone. Even Stevie Wonder could see that’s a bad idea.
Reading the master plan back it’s like; “What could possibly go wrong?”
1. Choke out team mate and tie him up
2. Have a local national rape him
3. Record for posterity
4. Blackmail for….
5. ???????
6. Profit
What a shitty way for a warrior to die. Hope they get what is coming to them.
Bunch of thieving kweers it sounds like. Hang them high.
A reduction in rank to Petty Officer Second Class? Why? Why not a reduction to Seaman Recruit, that seems more fitting for someone who conducts themselves in such a manner.