Related story: As victim’s family mourns, killer’s parents wonder what went wrong

TAEGU, South Korea — An Army private was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison after being found guilty in the stabbing death of a sergeant at Camp Carroll earlier this year.

Pfc. Gregory David Robertson, 25, drew the sentence after the judge, Army Col. Patrick J. Parrish, found him guilty of murder in the Feb. 19 death of Sgt. Kenneth Lamond Kelly, 27. Robertson also was sentenced to reduction to the lowest military pay grade, E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge.

The maximum allowable penalty on the murder charge was life in prison.

Before Parrish weighed the sentence Wednesday morning, the court heard statements — many of them tearful and faltering — from Kelly’s mother, former wife, 9-year-old son and unit first sergeant, and from Robertson’s parents.

Robertson also gave an unsworn statement in which he said he’d been raised in a strictly religious family and often felt he was “missing out” on the fun others had.

“Ever since elementary school I wanted to be ‘cool’ … the type … who fit in … I forgot who I was and where I come from,” Robertson told the court. “I tried to get out of the ‘preacher’s kid’ status quo.”

By the time he was serving in South Korea, Robertson said, he was drinking and focusing on the weekend club scene.

He said he faced a choice: “Whether I wanted to go to church and serve God or whether I wanted to go to the club and serve the devil … I’m so ashamed.”

Through much of the morning, the sounds of weeping were audible in and just outside the courtroom, mainly from Kelly’s relatives and from Robertson, who cried frequently during the three-day trial. Robertson had opted to be tried by military judge alone instead of a jury.

He had been assigned to the 20th Area Support Group at Camp Henry as a computer graphics designer. Kelly was a supply sergeant with the 293rd Signal Company, 36th Signal Battalion, at Camp Carroll in Waegwan, about a 30-minute drive north of Taegu.

The case grew out of relationships the men had with Spc. Kayamia Collins of the 293rd Signal Company. The stabbing occurred in Collins’ room at Camp Carroll. She was then a private first class.

Collins testified Monday that she and Kelly had a passionate relationship and she also had a close — but not romantic — relationship with Robertson.

Kelly grew to resent Collins’ relationship with Robertson and either pushed or shoved him on Feb. 5 at the Hilltop Club, humiliating him in front of others there, according to testimony.

Kelly and Collins broke up the night before the stabbing; when Kelly learned that Robertson was visiting Collins, Kelly came over in a rage, punched and kicked her. He then set upon Robertson, who stabbed Kelly with a knife prosecutors said he’d bought earlier that day.

Kelly collapsed and was pronounced dead later that night at the Camp Carroll medical clinic.

Defense lawyers stated Robertson stabbed Kelly in self-defense because he feared Kelly might beat him to death.

But prosecutors said Robertson intended to either kill or grievously injure Kelly, and asked Parrish to find him guilty of murder and for a sentence of no less than 35 years.

Prosecuting Robertson were Capt. Trevor I.J. Barna, trial counsel, and Maj. Kevin D. Smith, assistant trial counsel.

Just before military police led Robertson from the courtroom, he hugged his lawyers, Capt. James Culp and Capt. Pia W. Rogers. Robertson clung for a long moment to Culp, his face pressed against the officer’s shoulder.

Robertson next hugged his mother and father.

On Monday, the day his court-martial began, Robertson pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. But Robertson did plead guilty Monday to wrongfully possessing a knife; trying to impede the investigation by trying to hide the knife; and disobeying an order restricting him to Camp Henry.

In addition, in a separate November 2004 sexual misconduct case for which he also was charged, he pleaded guilty Monday to indecent assault — entering the Camp Henry room of a female soldier sleeping under a blanket, then touching the blanket near her genital area; and to unlawfully entering the woman’s room.