Former Navy Lt. Craig Becker was convicted in 2022 of premeditated murder in the 2015 death of his wife, Johanna Hove-Becker. He recently lost an appeal of the conviction in a unanimous ruling. (Facebook)

A former Navy officer who is serving a life sentence for pushing his drugged wife out the window of their seventh-floor apartment in Belgium more than 10 years ago failed in his bid to have his murder conviction overturned.

The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the findings and sentence for Lt. Craig R. Becker, who was found guilty by a military court in 2022 of one specification of premeditated murder in the death of his 32-year-old wife, Johanna Hove-Becker.

Becker was an explosive ordnance disposal technician serving at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Casteau. His wife died on Oct. 8, 2015, less than two hours after falling from her apartment in nearby Mons.

After a drawn-out appeals process, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously on Dec. 17 that none of the 12 trial issues they took under consideration warranted redress.

Besides murder, Beck was convicted of one specification of battery for poisoning his wife and two specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. His life sentence includes the possibility of parole, according to court documents.

At trial, Becker contended that his wife had jumped from the window after drinking wine and taking medication, according to court documents.

Belgian police immediately ruled her death a suicide but reopened their investigation days later after receiving additional reports calling the initial determination into question.

Johanna Hove-Becker died in 2015 after a fall from a seventh-floor window in Mons, Belgium. A Navy appellate court recently upheld the murder conviction and life sentence of her husband, Craig Becker, a former Navy lieutenant. (Dignity Memorial)

One month beforehand, the couple had signed a separation agreement, according to court records.

The appeals judges noted that the defense’s case had relied on the theory that Hove-Becker threw herself from the window, yet there was no indication that she was suicidal at the time, they wrote.

“Indeed, friends and coworkers described her as happy and moving on with her life,” the 111-page opinion said. “She also signed a lease on a new apartment on the same day as her death,” and had packed a bag for a trip to China she was planning to take with her father the very next day.

The Navy sought to keep the case under Belgian jurisdiction, concerned that a military court might not be able to use evidence collected by Belgian investigators, court records show.

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis denied the request and the Navy assumed primary jurisdiction in 2018.

In his appeal, Becker argued that the delay of U.S. military intervention deprived him of his right to a speedy trial and sufficient legal counsel.

He contended that the United States put off jurisdiction intentionally, as it allowed Belgian authorities to interrogate him without the assistance of an American attorney, court documents state.

Prosecutors then used “the fruits of these interrogations against him” later in his court-martial, he argued.

The appeals court dismissed the claim, saying that Becker did not “identify specific interrogations or statements he now objects to.”

Becker also challenged some of the evidence admitted at trial, including cryptic text messages exchanged between him and a woman prosecutors said was his girlfriend several days prior to his wife’s death.

He accused the military judge of abusing his discretion by also permitting evidence that he picked up his wife and threw her to the ground at an Army hotel in Belgium in a prior, separate incident in 2013, when court documents say he discovered she was having an affair.

The appellate judges acknowledged that the prosecution’s case had been largely circumstantial.

But there was “overwhelming evidence of preparation” ahead of the killing, they found in rejecting Becker’s petition.