Man gets 110 years for killing disabled veteran and stealing VA benefits

Montana man gets 110 years for killing disabled veteran

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FEBRUARY 28, 2020

“You are barbarians, both of you,” Lori Petzack said to Craft and Zdeb during the sentencing hearing. “My son fought for your freedom and independence for four years in the U.S. Army. He received a frontal lobe traumatic brain injury in Mosul, Iraq, from an IED which fully disabled him for the rest of his life, which you both took away.”

GREAT FALLS, MONT.
A Montana man who was convicted of killing a disabled veteran in February 2016, burying his body in the dirt floor of a barn and stealing his disability benefits was sentenced on Friday to 110 years in prison.

Brandon Craft, 25, of Great Falls, will not be eligible for parole until he serves 50 years, District Judge Elizabeth Best ruled.

Craft's ex-wife Katelyn Zdeb, 25, pleaded guilty in April 2018 to stealing Adam Petzack's Veterans Affairs benefits for several months after his death. She testified against Craft at his trial in November and was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison with no time suspended.
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PTSD Australia: Police Officer Talks About Moment Everything Changed

'I just wanted to wrap my arms around her': Police officer reveals the moment she climbed into the boot of a car with a dying mother who had been trapped for four days
Daily Mail Australia
By Sam McPhee
18 June 2017

Narelle Fraser had a breakdown following the discovery of Maria Korp and developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result. She has quit the police force and is speaking out on PTSD in an attempt to encourage others to address the illness.

Narelle Fraser (pictured) was the first police officer on the scene and could not find Maria Korp's pulse

Policewoman has opened up about finding a near-dead woman in 2005
Narelle Fraser discovered mother-of-two Maria Korp in the boot of a car
Fraser cradled Korp who she thought was deceased after being in car four days
She felt Korp breathe and immediately rushed her to hospital
Korp was placed in coma but passed away several months later

A Victorian policewoman has relived the moment she discovered what she thought was the lifeless body of a missing woman in the boot of a car.

Narelle Fraser found mother-of-two Maria Korp in the back of a Mazda 626 in Melbourne on the 13th of February, 2005.

An emotional Fraser climbed in the boot to cradle the body, only to feel Korp breathe before rushing her to hospital.

Maria Korp was placed in a medically induced coma but would never regain consciousness and died several months later.

Police allege her husband, Joe Korp, and mistress, Tania Herman, plotted killing Maria. Joe committed suicide on the day of his wife's funeral, while Tania pleaded guilty to her murder.
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Will Ronald A. Gray Be Executed?

Murdered woman’s sister backs execution of former soldier
By Fox News
December 30, 2016

The sister of a woman murdered more than 30 years ago in North Carolina says she and her family fully support the military’s planned execution of the woman’s killer, a former soldier.

Ronald Gray leaves a courtroom at Fort Bragg in 1988. AP

The execution would be the first by the US military in more than a half-century. A Kansas federal judge earlier this month lifted the stay of execution for the former Fort Bragg soldier, Ronald A. Gray, who is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Gray was convicted in military and civilian courts of raping several women and killing four, including 18-year-old Tammy Cofer Wilson. He was sentenced to death in a Fort Bragg court-martial in 1988.
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PTSD On Trial: Matthew Desha and Road Rage

Investigator | Solon gunman shouted: "They killed my father"
WKYC
Phil Trexler and Tom Meyer
September 14, 2016

Matthew Ryan Desha (Photo: SPD)

SOLON: - After Matthew Ryan Desha emptied his AR-15 rifle on random motorists in Solon, police say he offered a curious defense.

“They killed my father,” he shouted.

Desha, 29, then recounted his mental health history to officers. Post-traumatic stress, drug abuse.

Friends say he often stopped taking his medication. He also often stopped seeking counseling.

No one had killed his father.

Desha, however, is accused of killing Deborah Pearl, whose car he crashed into on Solon Road after speeding through a red light Aug. 27.

Immediately after the crash, reports show Desha began firing his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. He fired at Pearl’s car before she was able to get out, reports show.

He also shot toward four different drivers, all of whom had stopped at the crash.

Reports show two men managed to subdue Desha until officers arrived. Desha, dressed in a USMC T-shirt, had used every bullet he had.

Another man recorded the images on his cell phone. The video, which shows Desha firing his weapon, was turned over to police.

Desha, a Marine veteran, served two tours in Iraq.
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Judge Releases Veteran Murder Investigation Reopened

Man convicted of murdering college student set free amid questions over guilt
Los Angeles Times
Richard Winston
June 23, 2016

Raymond Lee Jennings, right, flanked by his attorney, Jeffrey Ehrlich, was ordered released from state prison after prosecutors express doubts about his guilt. Jennigs was convicted in the 2000 murder of college student Michelle O'Keefe. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

An Iraq war veteran convicted in the 2000 slaying of college student Michelle O’Keefe was ordered released from state prison Thursday after prosecutors express doubts about his guilt.

"The people no longer have confidence in the conviction," Los Angeles Deputy Dist Atty. Bobby Grace told a judge, who ordered Raymond Lee Jennings released.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Ryan recommended that Jennings be released immediately from the courthouse but ordered electronic monitoring for Jennings because the case against him has not been dismissed.

Jennings, who worked as a security guard at the Palmdale parking lot where O’Keefe was found, smiled broadly as entered the courtroom.

"He was happy to know, after 11 years, his ordeal is over," his attorney, Jeffrey Ehrlich, said outside court.
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PTSD on Trial: Iraq Veteran Found Legally Insane After Shooting Neighbor and His Wife

Iraq veteran insane when he killed neighbor, wounded neighbor’s wife
MyNewsLA
POSTED BY DEBBIE L. SKLAR
MAY 19, 2016

A judge ruled Thursday that an Iraq war veteran was legally insane when he shot and killed his 73-year-old neighbor and wounded the neighbor’s wife at a Reseda apartment building in December 2013.

Superior Court Judge Susan Speer made the finding after reviewing reports from three experts in the case of Ricardo Javier Tapia, 35, who pleaded no contest April 28 to the Dec. 20, 2013, murder of Giam Kim Hoang and the attempted murder of Hoang’s wife, Ngoc Hoan Thi Nguyen, 61.

Tapia will be sent to Patton State Hospital for treatment for at least six months, according to his attorney, William M. Paparian.

Tapia’s lawyer said he will then ask for his client to be sent to a Veterans Administration residential facility for treatment of a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

“My goal is to get him the treatment that I believe he desperately needs,” Paparian said.

Tapia was taken to a VA hospital in December 2013 on an involuntary psychiatric hold after his fiance called 911 about his erratic behavior, but he was released a day later and his handgun was not confiscated by police, according to his lawyer.
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Veteran Blames PTSD and VA For Double Murder--VA Says Huh?

Man accused of killing his mother and stepfather pleads not guilty, attorney says PTSD is to blame
Kern Gold Empire
By Tabatha Mills
Published 05/11 2016

"Derek Connell is a highly decorated Iraq War vet whose experience in Iraq caused him all kind of medical and mental conditions and his thanks he got for serving on the front in Iraq was a total failure by the Veteran's Administration to take care of his problems," said Paul Cadman.

But here's the thing, according to Dick Taylor, the Director of the Kern County Veteran Service Department, Connell is not receiving any veteran benefits and has never walked into the Kern County office.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.
The man accused of killing his mother and stepfather pleaded not guilty, his attorney stating PTSD is to blame.

Derek Connell, 29, faces two counts of first-degree murder after officers were called to his parent's home in northwest Bakersfield and found them lying in pools of blood.

His attorney said Connell is a veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and was failed by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We're checking with Veterans Affairs about Connell's service in the Army and his benefits, so far what we're not finding is very telling, according to one local veterans advocate.

Dressed in paper clothing, Connell appeared to be on suicide watch as he sat in court for arraignment Wednesday afternoon.

His attorney asked him to face the wall in an attempt to block our cameras.

Connell pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

On April 30, police were called to a home on Lily Pad Court where they found Connell attempting to leave.

His mother, Kim Higginbotham, and his step-father, Christopher Higginbotham dead inside.
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Why Are Veterans With PTSD On Death Row?

Sometimes I am sure I should have just come home from work and taken a nap instead of reading some of the articles I am sent. After this one, I need a good stiff drink first and then maybe a nap.

An Ex-Marine Killed Two People in Cold Blood. Should His PTSD Keep Him From Death Row? "We are sending to war the most proficient and lethal killers in our nation’s history." Mother Jones, By AJ Vicens, May 2, 2016

The ruling on his case has implications for a question that has concerned the military, veterans' groups, and death penalty experts: Should service-related PTSD exclude veterans from the death penalty? An answer to this question could affect some of the estimated 300 veterans who now sit on death rows across the country, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But it's unclear how many of them suffer from PTSD or traumatic brain injuries, given how uneven the screening for these disorders has been.

Experts are divided about whether veterans with PTSD who commit capital crimes deserve what is known as a "categorical exemption" or "exclusion." Juveniles receive such treatment, as do those with mental disabilities. In 2009, Anthony Giardino, a lawyer and Iraq War veteran, argued in favor of this in the Fordham Law Review, writing that courts "should consider the more fundamental question of whether the government should be in the business of putting to death the volunteers they have trained, sent to war, and broken in the process" who likely would not be in that position "but for their military service." In a 2015 Veterans Day USA Today op-ed, three retired military officials argued that in criminal cases, defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges often don't consider veterans' PTSD with proper due diligence. "Veterans with PTSD…deserve a complete investigation and presentation of their mental state by the best experts in the field," they wrote.

That part of the article is right. PTSD is not a get off the hook free pass but justice does require disclosure of it. These cases are still very rare, as indicated by the number of veterans reported to be on death row. We have about 22 million veterans in this country.

If we don't take care of them when they are in the service, which clearly evidence proves we don't, and then can't manage to take care of then as veterans, substance abuse usually follows along with a lot of other things. The very nature of someone in the military is to save people even though they are trained to kill in order do to that, but we tend to skip that part. So how is it they go from being willing to die for the sake of someone else into killing others? That is a good place to start but then we have to add in the other simply fact we also like to forget. It is still happening. When it happened to all the other generations of veterans, we had the luxury of ignorance for an excuse. After all these years, no excuse should be acceptable because since 2007 the military and the VA has had 40 years of research to come up with a better plan than they ended up with.

PTSD On Trial: Four Tour Veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq

Logan County Jurors Hear Witness Testimony Regarding Shooting Of Lora Karras
Times Record
By Pat McHughes
Paris Express
March 26, 2016

The jury heard testimony Friday that when Lora Karras, 40, was shot three times and killed in March 2014 at her home near Scranton she may not have been the intended victim.

The jury heard that information when a taped interview between a Logan County Sheriff’s Office investigator and the man accused of her murder was played in court. On the tape, the accused, Josh Johnson, 40, of New Blaine, described an argument he’d had with Jennifer Johnson, who was then his wife, which led to her taking their two children and leaving their home. During the interview, conducted the night of March 19, 2014, a few hours after Karras was killed, Johnson told then-investigator Ray Gack what happened next.

“I loaded my gun,” Johnson told Gack. “I got in my truck and drove down there. I was hoping to get Robert.”

Robert Karras is the husband of the deceased. However, he wasn’t home. After Johnson arrived at the Karras home on Rodeo Arena Road, according to testimony presented Friday, he shot Lora Karras three times with a shot gun.

Johnson has been charged with first-degree murder and his trial opened Thursday in 15th Judicial District Circuit Court in Paris. Johnson has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease. His lawyers — public defenders John Irwin of Morrilton and Aubrey Barr of Fort Smith — contend that Johnson suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder brought about by four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Johnson served in the Marines.
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Vietnam Veteran's Daughter Fights For Justice

Daughter Believes Dad Was Wrongfully Convicted Of Murder 
FOX ILLINOIS 
BY LINDSEY HESS 
FEBRUARY 28TH 2016

"He's wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder. There was no intent here. He didn't wake up in the morning and say 'hey, I'm going to kill my brother today.' He simply tried to stop his violent brother," said Thompson.

The nation's top legal experts believe up to 100,000 U.S. prisoners are innocent.

The issue of wrongful convictions has been thrust into the spotlight recently after the wildly popular Netflix documentary 'Making a Murderer' took the nation by storm.

A Springfield woman claims her father was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder, and now she's fighting for justice.

"Anyone that knows him knows he loved his brother. And there's no way he intended to do this. There's no way," said Kelly Thompson.

But that's not how the jury saw it.

"There was no forensic experts. No one testified about his post-traumatic stress disorder from being a Vietnam vet. No one testified about how drunk he was. No one testified about any of the forensics of where my uncle was on the couch compared to what the state was trying to say," said Thompson.
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Arrest Made After Murder of Iraq Veteran Jesse Lee Richards

Police: Man murdered Iraq war vet at bus stop, then watched investigators 
BY NEWS 4 SAN ANTONIO 
FEBRUARY 23RD 2016 

SAN ANTONIO - Investigators have arrested a man in connection the bus stop murder of an Iraq war veteran.

SAPD says Daniel Jeremy Torres, 19, shot and killed an Iraq war veteran who was waiting at a bus stop on December 20, 2015. (Photo: Bexar County Sheriff's Office)

According to arrest papers, Daniel Jeremy Torres, Jr. lives across the street from the spot where he shot 28-year-old Jesse Lee Richards just days before Christmas.

At the time, police said Richards had just gotten off work at the Texas Road House off Southeast Military Drive and was waiting at a bus stop. He served in Iraq and had been working at the restaurant for three days.

"He had a box of food in his hand and he was headed home. That's what makes this all the more disturbing that someone could just be sitting there waiting for the bus, and have somebody approach and shoot them," said Jesse Salame with the San Antonio Police Department.
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Soldier and 14 Year Old Murder Charges After Mom's Body Found

Girl Pleads Guilty to Plotting Mom's Death With Soldier Beau
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ALLENTOWN, Pa.
Feb 11, 2016

A 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl accused of plotting with her soldier boyfriend to kill her mother pleaded guilty Thursday in a deal with prosecutors.

Jamie Silvonek will be sentenced to 35 years to life in prison, the Lehigh County District Attorney's office said.

As part of the deal, Silvonek pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. She will be eligible for parole after serving 35 years. Silvonek, who was charged as an adult, was accused of conspiring with 21-year-old Army Spc. Caleb Barnes via text to kill her mother in the driveway of her home near Allentown last March, after the three returned from a concert. Barnes stabbed the 54-year-old Cheryl Silvonek then he and the teenager ate at a restaurant and went shopping for gloves, bleach and other cleaning supplies, authorities said.

Police found Cheryl Silvonek's body in a shallow grave a few miles from the Silvonek home. The victim's blood-soaked car was found nearby.
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Killer laughed after decapitating Army veteran Sam Herr

Killer laughed after decapitating Army veteran, court is told
LA Times
Jeremiah Dobruck
January 8, 2016

Daniel Wozniak told police that he laughed as he cut the head off the man he had shot to death a day earlier.

In this Dec. 9, 2015 photo, Daniel Wozniak sits in court as opening statements began in his murder trial in Santa Ana.
(Joshua Sudock / Associated Press)

"I was actually smiling and laughing," Wozniak said in a videotaped interview with detectives that was shown last month in Orange County Superior Court.

When one investigator asked why he laughed, Wozniak replied: "I don't know. I reached a point where I couldn't even believe I was doing this."

Prosecutors highlighted that and other gruesome scenarios Thursday as they closed their case against Wozniak, a 31-year-old community theater actor from Costa Mesa.

Jurors convicted Wozniak on Dec. 16 of two counts of murder for the slayings of 26-year-old Army veteran Sam Herr and Herr's friend Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23, in 2010.

This week, the same jurors heard evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, in which prosecutors tried to convince them that Wozniak deserves a death sentence.
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Fort Carson Soldier To Stand Trial For Death of Spc. Adrian Perkins

Soldier faces court-martial in soldier's shooting death 
Associated Press
June 15, 2015

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - A Fort Carson soldier faces a military trial on charges of killing another soldier while they were deployed in Jordan.

The court-martial for Spc. Jeffery T. Page is scheduled to start Monday.

Page faces three counts of murder in the May 2014 shooting death of 19-year-old Spc. Adrian M. Perkins. If convicted, he could face life in prison. read more here

Man Convicted of Killing Fort Stewart Soldier for Insurance Money

Jasper man convicted of beating soldier to death for insurance money 
The Associated Press
March 27, 2015

A federal jury took less than an hour to convict an Alabama man of murder in the 2013 baseball bat slaying of a Fort Stewart soldier found beaten on government property near the southeast Georgia Army post.

The U.S. District Court jury returned its guilty verdict Thursday against 43-year-old Carl Evan Swain of Jasper, Alabama. Prosecutors say Swain killed his brother-in-law, 29-year-old Army Spc. John Eubank, in a plot with the defendant's sister to collect $500,000 in life insurance and benefit payments from the soldier's death.

"He is penniless. He is desperate, and he is willing to kill her husband if she'll pay him," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Rafferty told jurors in his closing argument.

Swain didn't testify at during his trial, the Savannah Morning News reported. His defense attorney, Edward Tolley, asked jurors to consider Swain's statement to FBI agents after he was arrested in December 2013. read more here

Court Martial and Soldiers Found Him Guilty, Others Want Him Free?

Cause Célèbre, Scorned by Troops 
New York Times
By DAVE PHILIPPS
FEB. 24, 2015

The events of that day continue to haunt many members of the platoon. Some, stalked by anger and regret, say they have trouble sleeping. One cried while talking about how the episode tore apart the platoon. One recently checked into a clinic for post-traumatic stress disorder, saying the calls to free Mr. Lorance had revived disturbing memories.

Clint Lorance, an Army platoon leader who was found guilty of second-degree murder in connection with the shooting deaths of two Afghan civilians in 2012, in a photograph provided by his mother, Anna Lorance.

Nearly two dozen soldiers from an Army platoon were on patrol in a dangerous valley in southern Afghanistan when a motorcycle sped toward them, ignoring commands to stop.

As he tells it, First Lt. Clint Lorance, the platoon leader, ordered his men to fire just seconds before the motorcycle bore down on them that July day in 2012. But the Afghans were unarmed, and two died.

The next year, Lieutenant Lorance was found guilty at a court-martial of second-degree murder, one of the few times an American soldier has been convicted of a crime for actions in combat in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He is serving a 19-year sentence at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

But the case is far from over. Mr. Lorance, who was dismissed from the Army, has become a cause célèbre for conservative commentators, including Sean Hannity of Fox News, who say the Obama administration punished a soldier for trying to defend his troops.

Three Republican House members — Duncan Hunter of California, Matt Salmon of Arizona and Ryan Zinke of Montana — have asked the secretary of the Army to review the case. And more than 124,000 people have signed a petition to the White House demanding a pardon.
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Texas Jury Finds Routh Guilty

Man convicted in deaths of 'American Sniper' author, friend 
Feb 24th 2015

A forensic psychologist testified for prosecutors that Routh was not legally insane and suggested he may have gotten some of his ideas from television.

STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A former Marine was convicted Tuesday in the deaths of the "American Sniper" author and another man at a shooting range two years ago, as jurors rejected defense arguments that he was insane and suffered from psychosis.

The trial of Eddie Ray Routh has drawn intense interest, in part because of the blockbuster film based on former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's memoir about his four tours in Iraq.

Since prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty in the capital murder case, the 27-year-old receives an automatic life sentence without parole in the deaths of Kyle and Kyle's friend, Chad Littlefield.

The prosecution painted Routh as a troubled drug user who knew right from wrong, despite any mental illnesses.

While trial testimony and evidence often included Routh making odd statements and referring to insanity, he also confessed several times, apologized for the crimes and tried to evade police. read more here

Routh Told Deputy He Shot Kyle and Littlefield for Not Talking to Him?

PTSD comes with a lot of things but Routh must not understand using it while using it as a reason to murder 2 people.

Former Erath County sheriff’s deputy Gene Cole testified Friday that after Routh was jailed, he heard him say: “I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me.” He said Routh said he had been riding in the back seat on the way to the shooting range. Cole, who is now a police officer elsewhere, said Routh also said, “I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me.”

Routh’s mother had asked Kyle, a former Navy SEAL whose wartime exploits were depicted in his 2012 memoir, to help her son overcome troubles that had at least twice led him to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Routh had been a small arms technician who served in Iraq and was deployed to earthquake-ravaged Haiti before leaving the Marines in 2010.

That is from AP reporting on Competence at center of ‘American Sniper’ murder trial February 14, 2015. Having hurt feelings because they wouldn't talk to him is not the same as feeling his life was threatened.

Deputy: Routh said he killed ‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle, friend because ‘they wouldn’t talk to me’
Dallas News
Dianna Hunt
Staff Writer
13 February 2015

STEPHENVILLE — Eddie Ray Routh felt snubbed.

He’d climbed into the truck with acclaimed former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and a buddy for an afternoon at a shooting range, and nobody had a thing to say. So he shot them.

That’s the explanation he gave for the slayings while sitting in the Erath County Jail awaiting trial on capital murder charges, according to a former sheriff’s deputy who overheard the confession.

“I heard Mr. Routh say, ‘I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me,’” former Deputy Gene Cole, now a Belton police officer, told jurors late Friday during Routh’s capital murder trial. “‘I was just riding in the back seat of the truck and nobody would talk to me. They were just taking me to the range, so I shot them. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. I’m sure they’ve forgiven me.’”

The exchange on June 22, 2013, is the first glimpse from prosecutors at a possible motive for the killings.

Kyle, 38, whose bestselling book American Sniper was recently made into a blockbuster movie, and his close friend Chad Littlefield, 35, were fatally wounded at a shooting range that Kyle had designed at the upscale Rough Creek Lodge and Resort near Glen Rose, southwest of Fort Worth.
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But KVUE ABC News shows how even the PTSD is been doubted. It appears that Routh lied making a claim to the VA for PTSD compensation.

Since he was arrested for the February 2013 murders of Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield, much has been made of Routh's alleged PTSD from his time as a Marine.

But prosecutors now cast doubt on it all.

In a brief filed with the court on Tuesday that detailed other offenses, prosecutors said Routh "lied about shooting a child in Iraq, pulling dead bodies out of the water, or piled up dead bodies in Haiti or [having] seen multiple dead babies."

The filing goes on to claim that Routh told a friend "he was making false claims to [the VA] to get benefits."

On multiple occasions, prosecutors outlined that Routh smoked marijuana and used methamphetamine for at least a decade beginning in 2003 — before his military service.

The state even said Routh was high in 2013 when he is suspected of murdering Kyle and Littlefield.

"Even if he had the condition, and it was merely exacerbated by voluntary intoxication, I think the defense may have an uphill battle," said Ward.

Teeanger Found Guilty of Murdering Fort Carson Soldier and Pregnant Wife

Teen Found Guilty Murders Of Soldier, Pregnant Wife 
KKTV News
September 30, 2014

Macyo January has been found guilty of killing a Fort Carson soldier and his pregnant wife.

It took a jury less than four hours to reach their verdict after beginning deliberations at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. They found January guilty of first-degree murder in the January 2013 killings, as well as first-degree burglary. Authorities said January shot and killed Staff Sgt. David Dunlap and Whitney Butler when they walked in on him burglarizing their home.

The families of both victims were in the courtroom when the verdict was read.

January will be sentenced Oct. 22. He faces life in prison for his crimes, though due to being 17 years old at the time, he could be eligible for parole.

When the public defender polled the jury, all said "yes" when asked if this was their verdict.
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Roommate found guilty of murdering female Iraq veteran

OC Man Found Guilty Of Murdering His Roommate, An Iraq War Veteran
CBS Los Angeles
July 29, 2014

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — An Orange County man was found guilty Tuesday of killing his roommate in 2013. Kwang Joy, 54, was convicted of second-degree murder for the death of Iraqi war veteran and Cal State Fullerton student Maribel Ramos.

Officials believe Ramos, 36, and Joy got into an argument on May 2, 2013 after the victim told him he needed to move out of her home in Orange.
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From previous report on Maribel Ramos

Ramos, who has served two tours of duty in Iraq, was last seen in her apartment on May 2. She was scheduled to graduate at the end of May with a criminal justice degree from Cal State Fullerton.