Army Pvt. John Martinez, 19, was found unconscious in his barracks room and later pronounced dead at the Fort Riley hospital on August 19, 2017. Pvt. Martinez was a cavalry scout with A Troop, 5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team at Fort Riley, Kansas. Pvt. Martinez was the fourth stateside soldier death at Fort Riley in less then a month. Staff Sgt. Alejandro Franquiz, 30, was found dead in his parked vehicle off I-70 on July 31; Spc. Peter Robbins, 23, was killed by police officers in a confrontation in Junction City, Kansas on August 8; and Spc. Richard Cox, 22, died of a gunshot wound on post on August 16. Pvt. Martinez joined the Army in July 2016 and arrived at Fort Riley in November 2016.
Army Staff Sergeant Anthony Lovell, 40, died of injuries sustained in an apparent motorcycle accident along Nolan Creek in Killeen, Texas on July 3, 2017. According to witnesses, SSG Lovell’s body was found in a mysteriously different location then the motorcycle. But the Killeen Police Department determined SSG Lovell was traveling south on 8th Street and failed to make a turn into a mobile home park in the area. Investigators claim SSG Lovell left the road, hit an embankment, and went airborne. Therefore, this accounted for the separation of the body and the motorcycle. And as a result, the accident caused multiple blunt force injuries.
“The motorcycle accident was around 8 p.m. on July 3. Lovell was going southbound in the 300 block of Eighth Street. Police say he failed to negotiate a turn and left the roadway then went airborne and into Nolan Creek. The soldier suffered a fatal head injury and was pronounced dead at 8:38 p.m.” -Killeen PD
SSG Lovell was a resident of Killeen, Texas; he was stationed at Fort Hood in March 2015 as a cavalry scout assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. SSG Lovell joined the Army in September 1997 and deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from April 2007 to June 2008 and from September 2009 to August 2010. At the time of the Fort Hood press release, the circumstances surrounding the incident were under investigation by the Killeen Police Department.
Fort Hood Army soldier Pvt. Justin Lewis, 19, was shot and killed near a vacant lot in a neighborhood outside the post in Killeen, Texas on April 17, 2017. Justin was pronounced dead on April 18, 2017 by the coroner. Pvt. Lewis’ home of record is listed as Henderson, North Carolina and he entered active-duty service in August 2016. Pvt. Lewis was a cavalry scout assigned to 3rd Cavalry Regiment in Fort Hood, Texas. The circumstances surrounding the unsolved homicide are under investigation by the Killeen Police Department in Killeen, Texas. The point of contact for the investigation is Ofelia Miramontez, Public Information Officer, Killeen Police Department. Miramontez’s phone number is (254) 501-8941/8807 and her email is omiramontez@killeentexas.gov. Eight months later, the Killeen Police Department does not have any updates in the case according to Killeen Police spokeswoman Ofelia Miramontez. Justin’s Army buddy, Logan Duty, told the TDT news: “[Justin] was just gunned down in the middle of the night, and no one’s able to find out why. If I was there, and I was one of the detectives, I wouldn’t rest until I figured out why. … (Lewis) wanted to help others, willing to lay his life down defending someone. I haven’t met anyone who was dedicated to serving like him.”
“Pvt. Justin Lewis’ uncle, Jerry Lewis, said when you have a loved one go into the military, you deal with the fact you may lose them on the battlefield. They never imagined they would lose 19-year-old Justin on American soil, near a vacant lot in Killeen, Texas.” –11 ABC News
According to ABC News, US Army Staff Sgt. Nathan Ryan Smith, 29, was charged with kidnapping, rape, arson, and tampering with evidence in the State of Washington. Fort Lewis Army personnel reported that Nathan Smith was Absent Without Leave (AWOL) as of January 5, 2009. Washington state investigators said Smith was suspected of kidnapping and attacking two women.
Smith was accused of grabbing one woman on January 1, 2009 in a Tacoma, Washington parking lot. He allegedly choked her until she became unconscious. The woman claimed when she woke up, she was naked and bound with zip ties in someone’s house. When she tried to free herself, she says she heard a man say, “If you fight, you’ll die.” Then she alleged the man put a knife to her face and said, “If you cooperate, you’ll go home.” According to this victim, the man believed to be Nathan Smith then gagged her and raped her. He also used electrified clamps to torture her and told the woman “If you tell anybody, police or anyone, I will kill you and your family. I can find you. I will find you.”
“After he allegedly raped one woman, Smith told her, I have killed several people in Iraq. I’m crazy in the head, and if I get caught by police I will come looking for you and kill you.” –ABC News
The second victim the police identified was a woman who was kidnapped on January 3, 2009. She claimed once they arrived at the assailant’s home, he choked her until she blacked out. She told police that when she woke up, her hands were bound and she had a gag in her mouth. She managed to escape and ran to a neighbor’s house who called the Washington State police. The second woman gave a similar description as the first victim of the man who kidnapped her. She also identified the same car the first victim identified, the same car Nathan Smith drove.
In both instances the victims said their attacker fit Smith’s description and drove the same kind of car that is registered to Smith. Washington State Police reported that Fort Lewis Army soldier Nathan Smith served as a calvary scout in Iraq from September 2006 to October 2007 and has military and wilderness survival skills. Nathan Smith is considered extremely dangerous. When finally captured and arrested, The News Tribune in Tacoma reported that Smith pleaded not guilty at his arraignment. In 2010, Smith changed his plea to guilty; guilty of one count of second-degree rape, one count of attempted second-degree rape, and one count of first-degree arson. The prosecutor requested 12 years for Smith, adding the brutality he inflicted on the women was off the charts. On May 28, 2010, the Judge sentenced Nathan Smith to 11 years to life in prison and it will be up to the Washington state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board to determine when, if ever, Smith is released.
He apologized to the women before being sentencing, saying he hopes the pain he caused them does not endure. He also apologized to his former comrades in arms. “They’re in Iraq right now, which is where I should be,” said Smith, a former cavalry scout with the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division…Defense attorney Wayne Fricke requested a low-end sentence of nine years, three months, saying his client had served his country honorably before going over the line with the women – prostitutes he’d hired to have sex with him. –The News Tribune
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 