PYONGTAEK, South Korea — The U.S. Army in Taegu wrapped up a pretrial hearing Friday in the case against a soldier charged in the stabbing death of a sergeant; the hearing officer next will weigh whether a court-martial is warranted, the Army said.
Lt. Col. Christopher Rollins, the investigating officer in the Article 32 hearing, will issue a decision in the Army’s case against Pfc. Gregory David Robertson, 24, said Maj. David Doherty, spokesman for the 19th Theater Support Command at Camp Henry. Typically, said Doherty, such decisions are announced within about one week.
Robertson, with the 55th Theater Materiel Management Center, is charged with murder in the Feb. 19 death of Sgt. Kenneth Lamond Kelly, 27. Kelly was stabbed in a barracks room at Camp Carroll and died a short time later at the base medical clinic.
Kelly, an Iraq veteran, was a supply sergeant with the 293rd Signal Company at Camp Carroll. He was from Goldsboro, N.C., and the father of a 9-year-old son.
Robertson is a computer graphics designer with the 20th Area Support Group at Camp Henry, about a 30-minute drive south of Camp Carroll.
According to a military police blotter report on the incident, Robertson admitted to investigators that he stabbed Kelly, but said he acted in self-defense. According to the report, Kelly showed up at the barracks room of a woman identified only as Collins, and, after being let in, attacked her and Robertson, who was visiting.
Robertson was quoted in the report saying he drew a knife in self-defense, not intending to stab Kelly. But, the report said, during a “struggle,” Robertson “drew a butterfly knife … and stabbed Kelly, who then began to walk away and collapsed.”
The Army has declined to further identify Collins or provide other information about her, saying only that she has not been charged in the case.
