{"id":36262,"date":"2020-09-18T21:04:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T21:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/09\/18\/coast-guard-seaman-found-not-guilty-of-killing-shipmate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:34:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:34:45","slug":"coast-guard-seaman-found-not-guilty-of-killing-shipmate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/09\/18\/coast-guard-seaman-found-not-guilty-of-killing-shipmate\/","title":{"rendered":"Coast Guard seaman found not guilty of killing shipmate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A U.S. Coast Guard member was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide charges this week in connection to the 2019 death of his shipmate near their Alaska duty station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/10\/17\/coast-guard-seaman-charged-in-shipmates-death-tried-to-keep-his-best-buddy-from-swimming-says-attorney\/\" target=_blank>Seaman Ethan W. Tucker<\/a>, 22, was also facing murder charges in connection to the Jan. 27, 2019, death of 19-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/10\/17\/coast-guard-seaman-charged-in-shipmates-death-tried-to-keep-his-best-buddy-from-swimming-says-attorney\/\" target=_blank>Seaman Ethan Kelch<\/a>, who was found unresponsive on the western side of Amaknak Island after going missing from the Kodiak-based cutter Douglas Munro during liberty hours the night before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But a plea agreement last week saw the government drop those murder charges in exchange for Tucker pleading guilty to charges involving underage drinking, making a false official statement and \u201ca general disorder offense,\u201d according to Tucker\u2019s defense attorney, Navy Cmdr. Justin Henderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The government proceeded with a bench trial on the remaining charges, and Tucker was found not guilty of negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter charges Wednesday, Henderson told Navy Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithin hours after Ethan Kelch\u2019s tragic death 20 months ago, Coast Guard investigators and officials wrongly blamed Seaman Tucker,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cAs we expected, a fair trial on the facts vindicated him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe military judge who heard all the government\u2019s evidence acquitted Seaman Tucker of causing Seaman Kelch\u2019s death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cmdr. Tamara Wallen, the Coast Guard judge in the trial, did find Tucker guilty of an assault charge from when Tucker struck Kelch the night before his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/12\/28\/accused-of-murder-coast-guard-seaman-headed-back-to-court-martial\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"143\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MUNRO-MAIN.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Accused of murder, Coast Guard seaman headed back to court-martial<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Questions continue to swirl about what happened on Alaska&#039;s Amaknak Island 11 months ago.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Henderson said both men were down near the water and \u201cvery drunk\u201d that evening, and that Tucker was trying to get Kelch back on the trail and back to their ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.navytimes.com\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/10\/17\/coast-guard-seaman-charged-in-shipmates-death-tried-to-keep-his-best-buddy-from-swimming-says-attorney\/\" target=_blank>told Navy Times last year<\/a> that Tucker was \u201cdesperately\u201d trying to keep Kelch from swimming in the 38-degree water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur defense was that this was a reasonable use of force\u201d to try and get Kelch back on the trail, Henderson said this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prosecutors had alleged that Tucker strangled and punched Kelch in the head \u2014 causing swelling between the skull and scalp \u2014 before placing his body in the water and leaving him to die, according to charge sheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tucker was sentenced to 14 months&#8217; confinement, reduction to E-1 and a bad-conduct discharge, according to court records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because Tucker received 249 days pre-trial confinement credit, he will likely serve just less than five months in the brig, Henderson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coast Guard officials did not respond to requests for comment on the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In January 2019, Seaman Ethan Kelch was found unresponsive on the western side of Amaknak Island, Alaska, after going missing from the Kodiak-based cutter Douglas Munro during liberty hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":41218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,22,23,88,12,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3355],"class_list":["post-36262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-disaster","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3XUTKAWNOJETZBOY77UJ6GSUVA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/09\/18\/coast-guard-seaman-found-not-guilty-of-killing-shipmate\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Coast Guard seaman found not guilty of killing shipmate - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In January 2019, Seaman Ethan Kelch was found unresponsive on the western side of Amaknak Island, Alaska, after going missing from the Kodiak-based cutter Douglas Munro during liberty hours.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coast Guard seaman found not guilty of killing shipmate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In January 2019, Seaman Ethan Kelch was found unresponsive on the western side of Amaknak Island, Alaska, after going missing from the Kodiak-based cutter Douglas Munro during liberty hours.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2020\/09\/18\/coast-guard-seaman-found-not-guilty-of-killing-shipmate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Navy Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-18T21:04:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T19:34:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Geoff Ziezulewicz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Geoff Ziezulewicz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t       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