KADENA AIR BASE, Japan, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- A U.S. airman in Japan pleaded guilty Monday to plotting with the wife of a service member to kill her husband and then slitting the man's throat.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Cron, 26, of the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit murder, premeditated murder and obstruction of justice in the 2011 death of Tech. Sgt. Curtis Eccleston, 30, Stars and Stripes reported.
The plea came during the opening day of Cron's court-martial in the fatal stabbing, which occurred in an off-base apartment.
Cron had reached an agreement with military prosecutors in November enabling him to avoid the death penalty.
He will receive a life sentence but the court must decide whether he will be eligible for parole.
Japanese authorities have charged the victim's wife, Barbara Keiko Eccleston, 32, a Brazilian national, with murder. Her trial date has not been set.
The military court said Cron and Barbara Eccleston had been lovers before she married Curtis Eccleston and the two were having an affair in the months before the murder.
Cron said she had sent him a text message in November 2010 asking him to kill her husband.
"I made a terrible mistake and hurt many people." he said. "I said, 'Yes.' "
