KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Story by Laura Kraegel. Courtesy of KUCB in Unalaska.
A U.S. Coast Guardsman accused of murdering his shipmate in Unalaska — has been released from a military prison in California.
21-year-old Seaman Ethan Tucker will be restricted to the branch’s base in Alameda — while his case proceeds. As KUCB’s Laura Kraegel reports, his release comes as prosecutors amend the charges against him.
Tucker has been charged with killing 19-year-old Seaman Ethan Kelch while their vessel, the Kodiak-based Cutter Douglas Munro, was stopped in Unalaska for repairs last winter.
When Tucker was first charged in August, after a 7-month investigation, military prosecutors said that he strangled and punched Kelch while they were drinking on a beach near the port, before dragging Kelch’s body to the water and leaving him to drown.
This week, prosecutors *amended* the charges against Tucker — dropping an allegation of “maiming,” as well as revising language to say he left Kelch in the water rather than “placing” him there and that he struck Kelch “unlawfully” rather than caused “blunt force trauma.”
Those changes come after Tucker’s defense attorney presented a very different account of what happened — at a hearing last month. The defense says Kelch became belligerent while drinking and was trying to go for a swim — and that Tucker was just trying to restrain him to keep him out of the cold water.
That is according to reports from the San Diego Union-Tribune, which is covering the court proceedings in California. Another hearing is set for early December as Tucker is still charged with six violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — including murder, aggravated assault, and involuntary manslaughter.
Prosecutors and Tucker’s defense attorney are expected to present evidence, while the Coast Guard’s Pacific Area commander decides whether the case should proceed to a court-martial trial.
In the meantime, Tucker has been released from a military prison in San Diego — where he’d been confined since his summer arrest. A Coast Guard spokesperson says that a commanding officer reviewed the case and determined that a “lesser form of restraint” would be sufficient to ensure that Tucker appears for future hearings and does not commit any crimes.
He is now restricted to the base in Alameda, supervised by base security — and allowed to perform “logistics” duties, like working in the mailroom and setting up chairs and equipment for presentations.
