An interrogation video in which Air Force Staff Sgt. Sean Oliver reportedly confesses to strangling Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dmitry Chepusov was prosecutors' first piece of evidence in the court-martial of Oliver, according to Stars and Stripes.
The military newspaper reports Oliver admitted to choking Chepusov in the video:
He said he intended to knock him out, not to kill him.
Oliver maintained in his statement to investigators that Chepusov was alive when he put him into his car.
Chepusov's dead body was in the passenger seat of Oliver's car.
German authorities later performed an autopsy on Chepusov, and ruled he died from “force to the throat.”
Prosecutors say Oliver's duel motives for allegedly killing Chepusov were love and greed. They contend Oliver was having an affair with Alejandra Zolezzi, Chepusov's estranged wife, and Chepusov threatened to disclose that affair to Oliver's chain of command, which could have ended Oliver's military career.
In addition, prosecutors say:
Oliver planned to murder Chepusov in order to... keep his girlfriend (Chepusov's wife), who would receive a $400,000 life insurance payout when Chepusov died.
In an email to the Navy Times, Air Force spokesman Juan Meléndez described the ten members of the military who will decide Oliver's fate:
A panel, or jury, of 10 service members — two lieutenant colonels, two majors and six enlisted members ranging from technical sergeant to chief master sergeant — will decide the case.
Oliver has pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to take roughly three weeks.
