Spc. Nicholas Lowery, 24, was acquitted Tuesday of charges that he shot and killed his sergeant in 2023 following a night of heavy drinking. (Rose L. Thayer/Stars and Stripes)
FORT HOOD, Texas — A soldier was acquitted Tuesday of charges that he shot and killed his sergeant in 2023 following a night of heavy drinking and then lied about it to investigators to cover his actions.
Spc. Nicholas Lowery, 24, sat unmoving as a warrant officer on the seven-man jury read the verdict aloud just after 2:30 p.m. in the 1st Cavalry Division’s courthouse at Fort Hood. His family members in the gallery held each other and cried.
Across the aisle, the family of the deceased soldier, Sgt. Alfredo Martinez, 30, also wept in their seats, even after the judge had closed the proceedings.
The verdict clearing Lowery of unpremeditated murder and obstruction of justice came on the eighth day of the court-martial and after jurors deliberated for about four hours. An eighth member of the jury panel had been excused earlier in the trial.
Jurors also had the option to consider voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
“The 1st Cavalry Division has full faith and confidence in the military justice system,” the division said in a statement. “The process is designed to be fair and impartial, and we respect the verdict of the court.”
Lowery was accused of shooting Martinez in the head on Aug. 27, 2023, in Lowery’s on-post home and then providing a false statement to Army Criminal Investigation Division agents, as well as tampering with evidence in his living room.
Lowery, Martinez and Spc. Rene Heber, 26, were all in the living room at about 8 a.m. when the shooting occurred. The three had been drinking heavily, roughhousing and playing with firearms throughout the night. Lowery’s wife, Victoria Harris, was also in the home that night and testified during the trial that she had unloaded the handgun and left it in the living room before she went to bed at about 5 a.m.
Heber called 911 at about 8:03 a.m., telling operators that Martinez had shot himself in the head and was still breathing. He was transported to Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, where he died at about 9:30 a.m.
In the days following the shooting, initial evidence led investigators to question Lowery’s and Heber’s stories. Both were called in for questioning Sept. 6, 2023. During that questioning, Lowery confessed to shooting Martinez.
“I did shoot him out of anger,” Lowery said during an 11-hour CID interrogation, which was played for jurors. Evidence discussed in court never showed why Lowery would be angry with Martinez.
“Everything I said is true,” Lowery later said during the interrogation.
That confession was coerced, Jonathan Crisp, an attorney for Lowery, argued in court. Lowery did not even know during the interview that he was a suspect, he said.
“He is naive, trusting and suggestable,” Crisp said in his closing argument Tuesday morning. “He doesn’t even know it’s about him. That is how naive and stupid he is, and it’s heartbreaking to watch.”
Investigators created the story they wanted to believe, lied to Lowery during the interrogation and then forced evidence to fit the narrative, Crisp said.
“The government rushed to judgment and wanted to find an answer,” he said. “They wouldn’t consider anything else.”
Capt. Eric Fenton, prosecutor from the 1st Cavalry Division, used closing arguments to emphasize that the angle at which Martinez was shot — downward on the left side of the head — would be difficult for someone to do themselves. He also argued that there was a lack of evidence to show he shot himself — no blood on his hands or the gun, no sear from the handgun and no abrasions from a spray of gunpowder.
Heber is charged with accessory to manslaughter and obstructing justice in Martinez’s death. It was not immediately clear if his April court-martial under prosecution of the Office of Special Trial Counsel will move forward given Lowery’s acquittal.
