Hamilton convicted

You may remember when I first wrote about Michael Delos Hamilton nearly a year ago when he was busted for parlaying his nine month Marine Corps career into an enviable record and $30,000 in VA benefits. A jury convicted him yesterday and we had no idea how often this clown had been getting away with this shit;

In a morning session, the prosecution called six witnesses, including Margaret Miller, Hamilton’s sister, who testified that her brother was living near family on the West Coast during much of the time he claimed to have been involved in secret operations in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

She confirmed evidence from personnel records and military witnesses, saying Hamilton’s military career had lasted just over nine months, from the summer of 1961 to the spring of 1962, when he was discharged as a Marine private first class after being involved in a machinery accident that amputated the tips of two of his fingers.

She said she had learned, with surprise and dismay, of Hamilton’s appearance and speech at a Jacksonville Vietnam veterans’ ceremony in the dress regalia of a Marine colonel when Hamilton’s son Earl sent her a link to a Daily News story investigating Hamilton’s claims.

Other witnesses testified that Hamilton had frequented a number of military installations wearing inappropriate military uniforms and decorations before his appearance at the April 2010 event in Jacksonville.

FBI Special Agent Willie Session said he had been called to intervene when Hamilton appeared aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego in 1996, arrayed in the uniform of a brigadier general and attempting to purchase a Marine officer’s dress uniform cover. Session said Hamilton had acknowledged he was not a one-star general when confronted and had promised not to commit the offense again, and was summarily disbarred from the base without being charged.

Marine 2nd Lt. Heath Kinder said he had been an enlisted military police officer in 2000, when he was called to apprehend Hamilton at a recruit graduation ceremony at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. Kinder said he was summoned to the scene by current Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, then serving at Second Recruit Training Battalion.

Hamilton, he said, was wearing the Marine service Charlie uniform with the insignia of a full colonel.

“I took off running toward the gentleman. I got him to stop,” Kinder said. “I noticed the rank and rendered the proper greeting, which was a salute and greeting of the day … then Sgt. Maj. Kent told me not to do that.”

Again, Kinder said, Hamilton was removed from base with a citation, and not charged.

Staff Sgt. Bobby Sanders said he had responded to reports of suspicious activity to find Hamilton walking through the Camp Lejeune exchange wearing digital camouflage utilities and the stars of a lieutenant general. Following the Camp Lejeune event, Hamilton was charged with counts including larceny of U.S. property, wearing a uniform without authority, and illegally entering military property, but all counts except possessing an altered ID card were dropped in a plea deal by which Hamilton paid $100 in fines and served six months probation.

The government’s final witness, agent Roger Horsely with Lejeune’s Criminal Investigative Division, said he had prompted a full investigation into Hamilton’s behavior after seeing coverage of Hamilton’s appearance at the Jacksonville Vietnam ceremony in The Daily News.

They kept letting the ritard get away with this crap and he doubled down every time. The prosecutor said, “He went up to a vending machine with a slug in his pocket to see if it would pay out.” And it did almost every time. He’s facing 16 years in prison and more than a $half million in fines. He deserves every bit of it.

Thanks to Ed for the link.

Category: Phony soldiers