
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 4, 1993                   TAG: 9305040235
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: YOKOSUKA, JAPAN                                LENGTH: Medium

SAILOR ADMITS KILLING GAY SHIPMATE

An American sailor confessed Monday that he stomped a homosexual shipmate to death last fall, but said he was drunk and did not plan the killing.

Airman Apprentice Terry M. Helvey, 21, of Westland, Mich., sought to avoid a premediated murder charge and a possible death penalty by pleading guilty to a lesser charge. The court-martial judge did not immediately accept the plea.

Gay-rights activists say the killing illustrated a pervasive animosity toward homosexuals in the U.S. military.

At the pretrial hearing, Helvey admitted kicking Allen Schindler repeatedly in the head and stomach, even after Schindler fell unconscious.

"I remember hitting him in the face and stomping on his neck and kicking him in the groin," Helvey testified at Yokosuka Naval Base, headquarters of the U.S. 7th Fleet, southwest of Tokyo.

Schindler, 22, was found dead in October in a public restroom in Sasebo in southwestern Japan, where their ship, the amphibious assault ship USS Belleau Wood, is based.

Schindler's mother, who identified the body, said his head was caved in, his genitals mutilated and all but two ribs broken.

Helvey, who said he did not remember everything about the incident because he was drunk, testified that he lied in previous statements when he claimed Schindler made sexual advances just before the killing. But he gave no reason for the attack.

Schindler had told the Navy of his homosexuality in September and was awaiting mandatory discharge when he was killed.

Helvey was charged with premeditated murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death. He entered a guilty plea to murder with intent to inflict great bodily harm, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The judge, Cmdr. David P. Holcombe, did not indicate whether the plea would be accepted at the next pretrial hearing, set for May 24.

Schindler's mother, Dorothy Hajdys of Chicago Heights, Ill., said she would be satisfied if Helvey was sentenced to life in prison.

"I'm glad he finally admitted to what he did, which was to kill my son," she said in a telephone interview from her home.

Helvey, wearing a white uniform with no insignia, showed no emotion.

He admitted kicking Schindler at least six times in the head and upper abdomen and said it was not in self-defense.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB