Kitty Hawk sailors get 3 years in robbery - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Kitty Hawk sailors get 3 years in robbery

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Two crew members from the Yokosuka-based aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk were given suspended terms Tuesday for skipping out on a restaurant bill and beating the restaurant manager who chased them down in Kamakura last December.

The Yokohama District Court sentenced Seaman Apprentice Brian Burgess, 21, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Casey Turner, 24, to three years in prison each, suspended for five years.

”They drank too much despite being supervised by the military to maintain discipline. The crime in which servicemen on active duty used physical force against an ordinary citizen is vicious,” Presiding Judge Kenichi Kurita said in handing down the ruling.

The two drank alcohol in the Kamakura restaurant on the night of Dec. 10, left without paying a bill of about 24,000 yen, and hit the restaurant’s 41-year-old manager in the face and other body parts, seriously injuring him, after he chased them down.

Prosecutors had demanded six-year prison terms for both men.