Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Tony DeDolph will spend the next decade in a military prison for his role in the murder of a Special Forces soldier in Mali in 2017.
A military jury convicted DeDolph, a member of the elite SEAL Team 6, Saturday. In addition to ten years in prison, DeDolph was also hit by a downgrading of his rank to E-1, forfeiture of his wages and allowances, and will be dishonorably discharged, according to a defense official.
Earlier this month, DeDolph had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the strangulation death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, a Special Forces soldier assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group. DeDolph also pleaded guilty to hazing, conspiracy and obstruction of justice for trying to hide the cause of Melgar’s death.
DeDolph also agreed, as part of his plea deal, to a provision that would prevent him from taking advantage of the case in any way, including writing books or earning a living based on his experience at SEAL Team 6.
Phil Stackhouse, DeDolph’s citizen attorney, did not answer phone calls or text messages asking for comment. Melgar’s widow, Michelle, attended the hearing, but declined to comment on the verdict, which has been the longest received by any of the men involved in his murder.
DeDolph was part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, known as Seal Team 6. He and Melgar were part of an intelligence operation in Mali in support of counter-terrorism efforts against Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in 2017.
Earlier this month, he told a military judge that he and the other men were avenging an “alleged contempt” after Melgar left them to attend a party at the French embassy in Bamako, the capital of Mali, the government said. Associated Press. His job was to place Melgar in a “rear naked choke” that restricts blood flow in the neck.
“I have applied the chokehold effectively, as I have done countless times in practice, with combat equipment and been put on,” DeDolph told the judge.
DeDolph said the attack was intended as a joke and that its severity escalated during an evening drinking. DeDolph, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Adam Matthews, also a member of SEAL Team 6, and two Marine Raiders – Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez and Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell – planned to break into Melgar’s room, suffocate him unconscious, tie him up with duct tape and dance around him in a gorilla mask and shoot a video of the whole thing. The four men – after receiving permission from Sergeant First Class James Morris, Melgar’s supervisor – broke open Melgar’s door and attacked him. Previous testimonials pointed the finger at DeDolph as the instigator, but he told the military judge “it was more of a pack mentality, a group decision.”
DeDolph is the third of four defendants to plead guilty in the case. Matthews, 33, pleaded guilty to hazing and assault and attempts to cover up what had happened to Melgar. He was sentenced to one year in prison in May 2019. Maxwell, 29, was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to negligence murder, hazing and making false official statements in June 2019.
Only Madera-Rodriguez is still awaiting trial. He is expected to appear before a court-martial in February and has no plans to plead guilty, his civilian attorney Colby Vokey said earlier this month.
DeDolph’s 10-year sentence closes one of the final chapters in a case in which one of the NCIS investigators was removed from the case after allegedly entering into a romantic relationship with a witness, one of the accused SEALs hitting Melgar’s widowed in a Las De Vegas firearms game and the Navy advertise DeDolph four months after he admitted to investigators that he had smothered the Green Beret.
But the lasting legacy of the case may well be the window it offered to issues affecting not only SEAL culture, but special operations in general. Melgar’s death was one of many ugly incidents – ranging from war crimes allegations to Special Forces soldiers smuggling cocaine from Colombia – to tarnish the reputation of special operations.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, there was widespread alcohol consumption, parties and prostitutes in the safe house in Mali. That’s a pattern that fits the numerous incidents of assault, sexual misconduct and drug use associated with these units, including a platoon from SEAL Team 7 sent home from Iraq after a ‘drunken fest’ on July 4, 2019. to allegations of sexual assault.
An ethics review by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in January did not reveal any systemic problems, but recognized 20 years of struggle as the development of leaders in the force. That “affected our culture in a number of awkward ways,” said Army General Richard Clarke, SOCOM commander.
“The bottom line is that we have focused disproportionately on employment and mission completion at the expense of the training and development of our force,” Clarke wrote in a letter to police. “In some cases, this imbalance has created the conditions for unacceptable behavior due to a lack of leadership, discipline, and accountability,” Clarke continued, adding:
“Culture doesn’t tend itself – it has to be cultivated by leaders, and only active, consistent engagement from leaders at every level will make us better.”