Keith B. Washington Convicted Sex Offender U.S. Marine Corp Staff Sergeant 8-Year-Old Child

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Name: Keith Bernard Washington No. 05-0650

Incident Date: June 27, 1998

Appeal Date: April 19, 2006

Conviction Date: June 30, 2000

Plea: Not Guilty

Charges: Indecent acts upon a child

Military Branch: U.S. Marine Corps

Listed In National Sex Offenders Registry? Yes GEORGIA

Appellant was a Marine Corps staff sergeant stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina.

Contrary to his pleas, after a contested general court-martial before members, he was convicted of carnal knowledge and indecent acts with a child, in violation of Articles 120 and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), 10 U.S.C. §§ 920, 934 (2000). He was sentenced to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for nine years and reduction to pay grade E-1. The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence. The United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed.

At the time of the alleged offenses, Appellant and his wife, Krystal, lived in on-base housing along with their

triplets, age five, and their daughter, C.B., age eight. At Appellant’s court-martial, Krystal testified that around 9:30

a.m. on June 27, 1998, she left the house to buy breakfast for the family at Hardee’s. She returned home a little before 10:00 a.m., and soon afterwards, made arrangements to drive her mother to Georgia. Krystal intended to drive and spend the night in Georgia with her mother and a friend, leave the children with Appellant, and return home the following day. She discussed child care arrangements with Appellant, and told C.B. to take a bath.

When Krystal and her mother left the house at about 10:30 a.m., Appellant was in bed wearing basketball shorts. Krystal testified that not long after leaving the house, she realized she forgot to pack a particular dress. She returned home and tried to open the screen door. The screen door was generally left unlocked, but upon her return, she found it locked. She tapped on the window of the triplets’ room, and all three came to the door and opened it. Krystal asked where C.B. was, and the children told her she was “in the room with daddy.”

Krystal walked into her bedroom to get the dress and saw Appellant and C.B. in bed together. Krystal testified that she became angry because she believed C.B. had ignored her demand to take a bath. She asked C.B., “[d]idn’t I tell you to take a bath?” When C.B. tried to get out of bed, Appellant grabbed her and said, “[l]eave the girl alone. She’s just laying here.” Krystal and Appellant began to argue, and when Appellant continued to not let C.B. out of bed, Krystal pulled hard on the bed covers. Before Appellant could pull the covers back up, Krystal saw that he and C.B. were “spooned into each other.” C.B.’s underwear and shorts were at the foot of the bed, and Appellant was totally naked. Krystal testified that Appellant had a partial erection in that “aboutto- lose-it stage.” She attempted to call the police, but Appellant disconnected the phone and tried to restrain her, telling her she was not going to “leave the house thinking that’s what [she had seen].” Krystal hurriedly ordered all four children, still in their night clothes and without shoes, into her car and drove them six to eight hours to Georgia.

At the court-martial, the specification for carnal knowledge alleged that Appellant, did “on divers occasions,

between on or about 15 April 1998 and 27 June 1998, commit the offense of carnal knowledge with [C.B.], a child under the age of 12.” In light of Krystal’s testimony about discovering her husband naked in bed with C.B. on June 27, the Government’s case focused on the events of that day.