Army major guilty of wife's death
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Maj. Richard Keith Hart, 45, of Orlando, Fla., was tried in a U.S. court-martial in the Aug. 12 killing of his wife, who was identified by South Korean police as 53-year-old Patricia Ann Hart.
Hart pleaded guilty to adultery and violating an order by his battalion commander to produce handwriting samples for investigators.
He also was found guilty of previous assaults on his wife and teenage daughter while he was assigned to Fort Lewis, Pierce County, between 2000 and 2003.
A South Korean highway patrol caught Hart as he dumped his wife's body before dawn off a high concrete bridge linking the coast west of Seoul and an island where Incheon International Airport is located.
South Korean police handed Hart over to the U.S. military. When a U.S. soldier is accused of killing another GI or a family member, the case is tried in a U.S. military court.
Hart had been assigned to the Yongsan Garrison in central Seoul, the headquarters of the U.S. military in South Korea.
The judge, Lt. Col. Edward O'Brien, handed down the verdict after three days of evidence and testimony, the military said in a statement. The case will be automatically appealed.
Hart, who had been accused of second-degree murder, had pleaded guilty to "impeding an investigation by stripping his dead wife of all jewelry and clothing, wrapping her in plastic and dumping her over the Young Jong Bridge," the statement said. Hart had pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
The judge found Hart guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter after concluding that "his wife was a participant in her own death by provoking him before she was killed," the military statement said.