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Former US soldier convicted of killing 19-year-old pregnant soldier on German military base

Former US soldier convicted of killing 19-year-old pregnant soldier on German military base

 


A former US Army soldier has been convicted of murdering a pregnant colleague in Germany more than two decades ago. Jurors in federal court in Pensacola, Fla., found Shannon Wilkerson, 43, guilty of killing Amanda Gonzales, another former service member, in 2001 at a base in Hanau, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday. .

Wilkerson beat and strangled Gonzales to death in his bedroom at Fliegerhorst Kaserne, a former U.S. Army base and military barracks, on November 3, 2001, the Justice Department said, citing court documents and evidence presented during the criminal trial. His conviction for second-degree murder could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 8.

Gonzales was 19 years old at the time of her death and four months pregnant. Authorities say Wilkerson thought she was pregnant with his child.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which helped lead the decades-long investigation into Gonzales' murder, previously said her body was found in the barracks two days after her death, on Nov. 5, 2001, because she did not show up for work. Gonzales was employed as a cook at the U.S. Army base in Hanau.

A medical examiner later ruled that asphyxiation caused his death and a homicide investigation was opened, according to the FBI.

Wilkerson was arrested in Florida on first-degree murder charges in February 2023, more than 21 years after Gonzales' murder. By that time, he had been discharged from the armed forces, although the timing of his discharge and the reasons for his discharge were not specified. Neither are many of the details surrounding Gonzales' murder and Wilkerson's possible motivations for committing it. CBS News reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for more information but did not receive an immediate response.

“The defendant violently beat and murdered Amanda Gonzales – a comrade who was pregnant at the time – at a U.S. Army base in Germany in 2001,” said Principal Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri, head of the division. criminal law of the Ministry of Justice, in a press release. statement. “His conviction yesterday, more than two decades later, is a testament to the Justice Department's relentless pursuit of justice. Many law enforcement officers and prosecutors persisted for years, pursuing every available lead and n “never hesitating in their search for evidence to hold the victim killer to account for his heinous crime.”

Wilkerson was charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which gives U.S. federal courts the power to prosecute crimes committed internationally by former military service members, even if they are no longer technically governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, authorities said after his arrest. placed in police custody. This code essentially forms the basis of the laws that dictate how the military justice system operates in the United States.

More from CBS News

Emily Mae Czachor

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