RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — A military judge on Friday denied a motion to suppress statements an Air Force staff sergeant made to officials investigating the death of a Navy broadcast journalist, allowing the incriminating statements to be used in his murder court-martial.
Col. Donald Eller, the Air Force judge hearing the case, also denied a defense motion to move the trial of Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Oliver from Germany to the United States, finding that pretrial publicity of court proceedings relating to the death of Petty Officer 2nd Class Dmitry Chepusov was not prejudicial to Oliver’s defense.
Eller heard two days of arguments earlier in the week on a range of motions, including a request from Oliver’s defense team to sever his pending court-martial for Chepusov’s 2013 death from a 2012 incident for which he faces additional charges.
Eller handed down rulings on many of the issues Friday, denying most of the defense’s requests.
Oliver is charged with premeditated murder in Chepusov’s death, as well as assault, making two false official statements and two counts of obstructing justice. He is also charged with aggravated assault likely to cause grievous bodily harm and obstruction of justice for a previous incident.
Chepusov and Oliver were co-workers at American Forces Network at Ramstein Air Base, where Oliver’s court-martial is expected to start in mid-January.
In one of its first motions Tuesday, Oliver’s defense had sought to suppress incriminating statements he made to Air Force investigators. Maj. Shane McCammon, Oliver’s senior defense attorney, argued that investigators used “unlawful inducement” and coercion to elicit those statements.
Investigators made Oliver aware of his right to a lawyer before and during questioning, at one point telling him, “You can ask for a lawyer any time you want,” Eller, who watched video of the interrogation, said. Additionally, Oliver had been represented briefly by a German attorney during his time in German custody; that lawyer told him not to make any statements, according to Eller.
Eller said Oliver “voluntarily chose to ignore the advice of his German lawyer” and was persuaded that Oliver’s incriminating statements were products of his own “free and voluntary will.”
Oliver’s attorneys also had asked to have the trial moved from Germany to the U.S., arguing that media coverage of the case — particularly by Stars and Stripes — would unfairly taint the jury pool. Stories printed in the newspaper and on its website included facts about the case that McCammon said would be inadmissible during the trial.
“Whether accurate or not, the reports are not inflammatory” or sensationalistic, Eller said in his ruling denying the change of venue. “While the court does harbor concerns about the prejudicial impact of reports” of some of the facts, the law doesn’t require complete ignorance on the part of panel members.
Anticipating continued media interest in the case, the court issued an order to prospective panel members in October to prevent them from reading about, listening to or watching coverage of the proceedings.
Eller granted Oliver five extra days of credit for alleged violations of rights while in pre-confinement at the Army confinement facility in Mannheim.
millham.matthew@stripes.com
Twitter: @mattmillham
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