A military judge Tuesday found an Air Force photographer guilty of sexual misconduct, setting the stage for a trial on more serious charges, including rape.
Col. Donald Eller Jr. found Airman 1st Class Nathan Wilson-Crow guilty of four charges and five specifications of misconduct, one of which carried a possible 15-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors told the judge that Wilson-Crow could be required to register as a sexual offender.
Once the charges were entered into the record, Eller brought 11 potential jurors, all officers, into the courtroom at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and began issuing instructions.
He also fired off a series of questions, including whether they had heard about the case in the media, and warned them it would be a full week.
“Certainly you should plan on being here the rest of the week,” Eller told them.
The prospective jurors quickly learned that Wilson-Crow, who was assigned to Lackland's 3rd Combat Camera Squadron last year, had been found guilty of some charges and specifications, but was fighting others.
They were told they would decide if he was guilty of two rape counts, the most serious charges in this trial. They carry a possible life sentence.
Prosecutors say he raped the woman on two occasions last summer, once at Calaveras Lake and another time in Corpus Christi.
As today's proceedings began, Wilson-Crow was found guilty of assaulting a girl by slapping her buttocks, an incident he called “playful,” a “good game tap, just joking around.”
He also was found guilty of performing a lewd act on an 18-year-old girl in the presence of a girl under 16 during a truth-or-dare game a year ago at Camp Eagle.
The camp is near Rocksprings, about 139 miles northwest San Antonio.
Wilson-Crow also admitted to indecently exposing himself in the truth-or-dare game, held on a starlit night in the Texas Hill Country sometime around April 26 to April 28, 2013. He said someone at a darkened picnic table dared him to pull his pants down.
He then had to say a funny phrase.
“I pulled down my pants for a few seconds and then pulled them up,” Wilson-Crow said, reading from a document on his desk.
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