The third of four US service members involved in the mysterious death of a US Army Green Beret in 2017 has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Chief Petty Officer Tony DeDolph detailed on Thursday how he and four other colleagues “pranked” Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar while they were serving in Mali, Africa.
DeDolph, another SEAL, and two Marines were upset over Melgar abandoning them earlier in an unsafe area claiming that he “had ditched” them as a “prank.”
The four men decided to prank him in return by breaking down his door with a sledgehammer, duct-taping him, and performing a usual chokehold to make him lose consciousness temporarily and wake up to find a scary, gorilla-masked man.
“I effectively applied the chokehold as I have done numerous times in training, with combatants, and has been done to me,” DeDolph said adding that Melgar failed to wake up after 30 seconds.
“Usually by that time, the individual has gotten up; and he did not.”
DeDolph said that the group watched “in a state of shock” as minutes passed and the duct-taped, bound Melgar remained unresponsive.
The chokehold that killed Melgar is a martial-arts-style move that interrupts blood flow in the neck leading to a brief loss of consciousness and is frequently used in military training.
DeDolph faces up to 22 years and a half in jail, losing his rank and getting dishonorable discharge when sentenced next week.
