Convicted chief to be tried by Navy in killing - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Convicted chief to be tried by Navy in killing

NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. — The Navy has decided to court-martial a chief petty officer for a slaying in which he was tried, convicted and sentenced last year in a Virginia state court.

Chief Information Systems Technician (SW) Rodney Williams was tried and convicted in Virginia Beach, but his first-degree murder charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced last August to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for shooting and killing a former sailor in front of a Norfolk, Va., nightclub in 2008.

The Navy wasn’t happy with the result, particularly given the victim’s former Navy affiliation and, lead trial counsel Lt. Cmdr. Angela Tang argued at a July pretrial hearing, over Williams having worn his Navy uniform to his state trial. His civilian attorney, George Yates, used Williams’ Navy service to argue for a lighter sentence, Tang argued.

Those arguments apparently won over Rear Adm. Mark Boensel, commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and the convening authority for the matter. Williams was arraigned Monday morning in a Naval Station Norfolk courtroom on all of the original Navy charges: one count of premeditated murder, one count of murder, four counts of aggravated assault, one count of reckless endangerment and one count of disorderly conduct.

The brief hearing was marked by two other bits of news. Williams has decided to once again retain Yates, who did not represent Williams at his July Article 32 hearing. Yates will be assisted by Williams’ two Navy attorneys, Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Stormer and Lt. Michael Whitican.

And at a hearing later this week, Williams’ attorneys will file a motion asking that he be released from pretrial confinement. Williams is being held in the new naval brig facility in Chesapeake, Va.