FORT BRAGG, N.C., July 30 (UPI) -- A military jury Monday acquitted a U.S. Army sergeant of homicide but convicted him on lesser charges in the suicide death of Pvt. Danny Chen in Afghanistan.
Chen, who killed himself Oct. 3 while on guard duty, had complained of racial harassment and hazing. Sgt. Adam M. Holcomb -- one of eight military personnel charged in Chen's death -- is the first to be tried.
The jury at Fort Bragg, N.C., found Holcomb not guilty of negligent homicide, reckless endangerment, communicating a threat and violations of a military statute prohibiting hazing, The New York Times reported. On the same day it began deliberation, the jury found Holcomb guilty of two counts of maltreatment and one count of assault consummated by battery.
During the court-martial, prosecutors argued that Holcomb subjected Chen -- a Chinese-American -- to hazing and racial harassment after Chen was deployed to Afghanistan in August 2011, and that the treatment led to Chen's suicide in October.
Lawyers for Holcomb argued that Chen was already despondent before he encountered Holcomb because he was a failure as a soldier and had a bad relationship with his parents, the Times reported.
