Case of years murdering naval officer takes a different turn with court ruling

A high-profile case of alleged murder that spanned nearly five years and demanded rulings from some of the top officials in the Marine and the Pentagon took another turn with a new appeal decision.

The Navy-Marine Corps Military Appeals Court issued a ruling this month in the case of Lt. Craig Becker, a decorated explosive ordnance ordnance officer charged with the murder of his wife on October 8, 2015, pushing her out of d ‘a seventh floor window in Mons, Belgium. A three-judge panel ruled in favor of the prosecution, arguing that a military judge wrongly excluded the prior statements of Becker’s wife, Johanna Hove-Becker, during preliminary hearings in early 2019.

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The government’s appeal on the matter before court martial, known as an interlocutory appeal, essentially left the trial on hold for over a year pending review by the appeals court. It is the latest in a series of unconventional developments in the thorny affair.

Becker, now 39, was serving at NATO Headquarters at the time of the alleged crime. The death of Hove-Becker, after falling from a window in the couple’s apartment building, would initially have been judged as suicide by the Belgian authorities. But later reviewers found the tramadol opioid and insomnia medication zolpidem into his system, according to the reported indictments, and officials ultimately charged Becker with homicide, claiming he drugged Johanna and then sent her to death.

According to the recent decision of the court of appeal, the couple separated in the summer of 2015 but remained amicable. But, the court said, Becker had a “visceral reaction” when he learned that Johanna had a new boyfriend. Her death took place the same day she signed a lease for her own apartment, after dining together in the apartment the couple had shared.

Years of court hearings and administrative back-and-forth followed while Becker remained in detention in Belgium. Navy officials, citing a status of forces agreement, refused to take up the case, despite requests from Becker’s lawyers. Adm. Michelle Howard, then retired, then Commander of the United States Forces for Europe and Africa, was concerned that the evidence collected by the Belgian authorities would not be admissible in a military court if the case was transferred, according to a 2017 report by San Diego Union-Tribune.

In the end, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis intervened on January 2, 2018, ordering the Navy to take charge of the case. One of the concerns cited in a petition to Mattis on Becker’s behalf was that the case would likely not be heard in a Belgian court until 2020 – an irony given that it has yet to reach court martial in the United States. United States.

Becker was released from Belgian detention in February 2018; to February 11, 2019, he was arrested To San Diego Naval Base on charges of premeditated murder, assault and conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.

The naval officer has always maintained his innocence; her defense attorneys claimed that Johanna Hove-Becker suffered from a recurring mental illness that affected her behavior and led to her suicide.

The appeals court ruling, released on July 24, says military judge Captain Aaron Rugh ruled in two preliminary hearings that statements made by Hove-Becker alleging previous abusive behavior by his husband, were inadmissible by court martial.

Hove-Becker claimed in August 2013 that her husband “threw her into their hotel room and strangled her” after learning of her infidelity, according to the court summary. She reported the alleged abuse to several people, including a military police officer and the clerk of the Army Lodge office where they were invited. She then wrote an official law enforcement report that Becker additionally took her ID and credit cards and changed passwords to their shared bank account, the summary states.

However, she retracted all statements that evening following a joint counseling session, and the investigation into the case was formally closed in June 2014.

Yet, according to documents, Hove-Becker continued to tell friends and family that her accusations were true and that she only took them back to save her husband’s military career.

“She said he had prevented her from contacting friends and family while she was recovering from surgery, and that he was controlling who could visit her in their apartment in Belgium,” the court wrote. call. “She said he controlled how she dressed, kept her from getting tattoos, and destroyed her cosmetics.”

The prosecution argued during preliminary hearings that Becker killed his wife in part to prevent her from reviving old allegations of abuse; his lawyers said it was just speculation and not supported by evidence.

In the end, Rugh sided with the defense and excluded the statements, saying it was not reasonably foreseeable that Hove-Becker’s abuse allegations would have been rekindled.

But the standard, according to the court of appeal, was poorly applied. At issue, the judges said, was the legal concept of wrongdoing forfeiture. While a defendant has the constitutional right to cross-examine any accuser, this right can be overridden in cases “where the wrongdoing of an accused prevents a witness from testifying”, such as cases of alleged murder in which the witness is the alleged victim.

“As the military judge’s ruling as to the inadmissibility of certain prior statements by Ms Becker was based on a legal principle which we now consider to be incorrect, we consider her ruling to be an abuse of power,” the tribunal wrote. “We determine that the appropriate remedy for this error is to refer the matter back for further proceedings consistent with this notice.”

Jeremiah J. Sullivan III, Becker’s civilian attorney, told Military.com by email that he expects the next hearing in the case to take place within 60 days.

“We are convinced that we will win and that justice will prevail,” he said.

– Hope Hodge Seck can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.

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