Second Sailor Pleads Guilty in Slaying

The second of two sailors charged in the slaying of a shipmate aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Constellation pleaded guilty Monday in military court, ending a bizarre case in which Navy authorities found little physical evidence after the victim’s body was tossed into the Arabian Sea and never recovered.

In pleading guilty, the defendants gave conflicting confessions on each other’s role in beating and stabbing to death Airman Martin T. Sturdy. Two knives used as the murder weapons were never found, and a fingerprint on a wrench used to assault Sturdy didn’t match either defendant.

But Seaman Marc C. Delevieleuse and Seaman Alejo Hernandez Jr., both 20, were charged after two other shipmates overheard them discussing the crime as they washed blood off their clothes in a bathroom on the carrier.

The Navy had sought the death penalty against the sailors for the Aug. 6 slaying of Sturdy, 21, of Chandler, Ariz. Delevieleuse, of Stockbridge, Ga., pleaded guilty Monday after Hernandez, of Rosharon, Tex., confessed and pleaded guilty Oct. 23. In return for pleading guilty, both defendants were given mandatory life sentences.

Testimony showed that Sturdy kept about $1,600 in his locker aboard the carrier, money he was saving to buy a car when the Constellation returned to San Diego.

Delevieleuse and Hernandez ambushed Sturdy on the boat, then killed him but found no money in his pockets. They took his locker key and threw his body overboard, but were apprehended before they could open the locker and steal the money.

At the close of Monday’s hearing, Ronald T. Sturdy of Phoenix, the victim’s father, said his son was a “very outgoing, very friendly, very trusting person� who was close to his shipmates.

“I can tell you Marty never had any idea he was in any danger from any of his shipmates,� the elder Sturdy said.

Knew of Money

According to testimony from Delevieleuse and Hernandez, it was common knowledge aboard the ship that Sturdy was saving his money. “He always carried it around� in a pouch looped into his belt, Delevieleuse testified Monday. “He always flashed it around.�

On the evening of Aug. 6--four months after the Constellation left San Diego--Delevieleuse and Hernandez plotted to rob Sturdy and cover up the crime by killing him and throwing his body overboard. Delevieleuse then lured Sturdy up to the rear of the ship, where the assault occurred.

Delevieleuse testified that he did not directly participate in the murder. He said he watched as Hernandez hit Sturdy on the back of the head with the dogging wrench and used two knives to cut Sturdy’s throat and stab him repeatedly. He said they both tossed his body and the knives into the sea.

Hernandez, however, said the assault began when Delevieleuse pushed Sturdy down on the deck and jumped on him. He said Delevieleuse wanted to choke Sturdy with a rope but Sturdy fought back.

“He stabbed him once in the neck and that didn’t do it either,� Hernandez said. “That’s when I grabbed my knife and I stabbed him in the throat, also. I got up and Sturdy was still, you know, almost alive.�

He said Delevieleuse dragged Sturdy to “the spot where he was going to get thrown over the side.� “Me and Delevieleuse threw a couple more stabs to him in the back. He fell down on the deck and Delevieleuse pushed him off.

“Before he pushed him off we looked inside to see if he had the money, and he didn’t have it,� Hernandez said. “That’s when Delevieleuse just got the keys and he was going to try to go into his locker that night. That’s what happened out there. And he was dead at the time when we rolled him off.�

Sturdy was discovered missing at the next morning’s regular muster. An air-and-sea rescue failed to turn up the body.