Navy SEAL Petty Officer Tony DeDolph will spend the next decade in a military prison for his role in the death of a Special Forces soldier in Mali in 2017.
A military jury sentenced DeDolph, a member of the elite SEAL Team 6, on Saturday. In addition to ten years in prison, DeDolph was also hit with the reduction in rank to E-1, loss of his salary and allowances and will be released for dishonor, according to a defense official.
DeDolph had pleaded guilty earlier this month to involuntary manslaughter in death by strangling the Army sergeant. Logan Melgar, a Special Forces soldier assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group. DeDolph also pleaded guilty to hoax, conspiracy and obstruction of justice for trying to cover up the cause of Melgar’s death.
DeDolph also agreed, as part of his court settlement, with a clause that prevents him from profiting from the case in any way, including writing books or making a living based on his experience at SEAL Team 6.
Phil Stackhouse, DeDolph’s civil lawyer, did not return calls or text messages asking for comment. Melgar’s widow, Michelle, attended the hearing, but declined to comment on the sentence, which is the longest received by any of the men involved in her murder.
DeDolph was part of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, commonly known as Seal Team 6. He and Melgar were part of an intelligence operation in Mali, supporting counterterrorism efforts against the local al Qaeda affiliate, known as Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb, in 2017.
Earlier this month, he told a military judge that he and the other men were avenging “perceived contempt” after Melgar left them to attend a party at the French embassy in Mali’s capital, Bamako, according to Associated Press. His job was to place Melgar on a “rear naked choke” that restricts blood flow in the neck.
“I effectively applied the choke as I have done several times in training, with combatives and it has been done for me,” DeDolph told the judge.
DeDolph said the attack was supposed to be a joke and that the severity increased during a night of drinking. DeDolph, SEAL NCO, Adam Matthews, also a member of SEAL Team 6, and two Marine Raiders – Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez and Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell – planned to break into Melgar’s room, choke him until he left unconscious, tie him with duct tape and dance around him with a gorilla mask and record a video of it all. The four men – after obtaining permission from first class sergeant James Morris, Melgar’s supervisor – broke into Melgar’s door and attacked him. Previous testimonies pointed out DeDolph as the instigator, but he told the military judge that “it was more like a pack mentality, group decision.”
DeDolph is the third of four defendants to plead guilty in the case. Matthews, 33, pleaded guilty to hoax and assault charges and attempts to cover up what happened to Melgar. He was sentenced in May 2019 to a year in military prison. Maxwell, 29, was sentenced to four years of confinement after pleading guilty to negligent homicide, hoax and false official statements in June 2019.
Only Madera-Rodriguez is still awaiting trial. He is due to face a court-martial in February and has no plans to plead guilty, said his civil lawyer, Colby Vokey, earlier this month.
DeDolph’s 10-year sentence closes one of the last chapters in a case that saw one of the NCIS investigators removed from the case after allegedly engaging in a romantic relationship with a witness, one of the accused SEALs beat Melgar’s widow in a Las Vegas gun show and the Navy promote DeDolph four months after he admitted to investigators that he smothered the Green Beret to death.
But the case’s lasting legacy may be the window he offered to issues facing not only SEAL culture, but special operations in general. Melgar’s death was one of several horrific incidents – ranging from allegations of war crimes to Army Special Forces soldiers smuggling cocaine from Colombia – to damage the reputation of special operations.
In the Mali hideout, alcohol, parties and prostitutes were widely used, according to sources familiar with the investigation. This is a pattern that fits the countless incidents of sexual assault, sexual misconduct and drug use associated with these units, including a squad of Team SEAL 7 sent home from Iraq after a “drunken party” on 4 July 2019 that sparked allegations of sexual assault.
A Special Operations Command (SOCOM) ethics review in January found no systemic problems, but acknowledged that 20 years of fighting have degraded the development of leaders in the force. This “impacted our culture in some problematic ways,” said Army General Richard Clarke, SOCOM commander.
“The bottom line is that we focus disproportionately on employment and fulfilling the mission at the expense of training and developing our strength,” Clarke wrote in a letter by force. “In some cases, this imbalance established conditions for unacceptable conduct to occur due to a lack of leadership, discipline and responsibility,” continued Clarke, adding:
“Culture does not tend to itself – it must be cultivated by leaders, and only the active and consistent engagement of leaders at all levels will make us better.”