Madera-Rodriguez faces the following charges in the June 4, 2017, strangulation death of Army Staff Sgt.
Attorneys started the trial Monday with a pool of 13 jurors, some were eliminated through challenges and others through dismissal due to conflicts with serving for the scheduled three-week trial.
Through most of the week of jury selection, military judge Marine Col.
DeDolph and other members of the special operations team in the country working contingency planning support with the U.S.
But DeDolph told Matthews that he and others had problems with Melgar and wanted to conduct a hazing party on him to put him in check.
were out drinking the night of June 3 and talking about Melgar.
The men got a sledgehammer and duct tape and planned to bust in Melgar’s bedroom door as he slept.
Because those planned acts didn’t take place, the military judge waived off the prosecution’s request to mention them in their statements to the jury.
Startled awake, Melgar struggled to fight back.
The two SEALs told the Marines they’d talk with authorities and not mention them and made up a story that they had been practicing hand-to-hand combat drills with Melgar, who stopped breathing.
Maxwell pleaded guilty in June 2019 to negligent homicide, conspiracy to commit assault, hazing, obstruction of justice and making false official statements.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation.