7 soldiers who last saw paratrooper alive before he was found decapitated are facing courts-martial on other charges
Seven North Carolina-based soldiers who were camping with a Fort Bragg paratrooper whose partial remains were found along the coast in 2020 are facing courts-martial on conspiracy and other charges. Officials have said the charges are unrelated to the death of Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez.
Eight soldiers assigned to the 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, were camping on Cape Lookout National Seashore when Roman-Martinez was reported missing in May 2020. Roman-Martinez's severed head washed up six days later, but his body was never recovered. The manner of his death is listed as a homicide, but no one has been charged with his death.
"While decapitation is, in and of itself, universally fatal, the remainder of the body in this case was not available for examination, and therefore potential causes of death involving the torso and extremities cannot be excluded," a 2020 autopsy report stated.
Court records state that seven soldiers who were the last to see Roman-Martinez alive are all charged with conspiracy and failure to obey a direct order or regulation related to travel during a travel ban, The Fayetteville Observer reported.
The newspaper, citing court records, identified the soldiers as Spcs. Juan Avila, Alex R. Becerra, Joshua L. Curry and Benjamin E. Sibley along with Pvt. Annamarie L. Cochell, Pfc. Samad A. Landrum and Sgt. Samuel O. Moore.
Several of them face other charges such as using LSD, disobeying a superior or making false statements.
All seven have all been arraigned and their trials are scheduled from May to September.
An Army Criminal Investigation Division spokeswoman has said Roman-Martinez's case remains open, but was moved to "cold case status."
A $25,000 reward had been offered for tips leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, the Army said.
"All he wanted was to do good in his life, so he joined the military," his sister Griselda Martinez told CBS Los Angeles in 2020. "And this is what happened to him? We only have a part of him, that's it. This is not right. This should never have happened to my brother."