Tony DeDolph Case: Guilty Plea, Vacated Sentence, and 2023 Resentencing

The Tony DeDolph case is the military prosecution of a former Navy SEAL who killed Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar with a chokehold during a hazing incident in Bamako, Mali, on June 4, 2017. DeDolph pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and related charges in January 2021 and was sentenced to ten years. That sentence was thrown out on appeal after prosecutors were found to have hidden information about a key witness, and at a resentencing hearing in October 2023 he received 18 months of confinement and a bad-conduct discharge. He had already spent about 23 months in pretrial confinement, so the credited time exceeded the new sentence.

What Happened in Mali

In June 2017, a small detachment of American special operators was stationed in Bamako, supporting the training of local forces fighting extremist groups in West Africa. The team included two Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, commonly known as SEAL Team Six, and two Marine Raiders. DeDolph, a Chief Special Warfare Operator at pay grade E-7, was one of the SEALs. The other was Petty Officer Adam Matthews. The Marines were Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell and Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez.¹

Melgar was a 34-year-old Green Beret from Lubbock, Texas, serving as an engineer sergeant with the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). He had enlisted in the Army in January 2012 and completed two deployments to Afghanistan before Mali.²

DeDolph later testified that the group was angry at Melgar because they had missed a gathering at the French Embassy after becoming separated from him in traffic.³ The group planned what they called a “tape job,” a hazing ritual in which the target is restrained with duct tape while unconscious and filmed. Prosecutors said the intent was to make a video of Melgar “being restrained and sexually assaulted” as a supposed joke.⁴

On the night of June 4, the four servicemembers, along with a British citizen and two Malian guards, used a sledgehammer to break into Melgar’s room while he was sleeping.¹ DeDolph applied a rear naked choke, a hold applied from behind that cuts off blood flow to the brain. He testified that in prior incidents like this the target would wake up within about 30 seconds. Melgar did not.³ Resuscitation failed, and a military medical examiner ruled the cause of death asphyxiation and classified it a homicide.⁵ One of the suspects allegedly performed an emergency surgical airway procedure on Melgar’s throat in what prosecutors described as an attempt to cover up damage to his trachea.⁶

The Investigation and Charges

The Army opened the investigation, but jurisdiction was transferred to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in September 2017 once it became clear the SEALs were the primary subjects.⁶ DeDolph initially told investigators that he and Melgar had simply been wrestling.⁴ Prosecutors later found the group had left out the duct tape and the involvement of the Marines from their early accounts.

On November 15, 2018, roughly 17 months after Melgar’s death, the four servicemembers were formally charged. The original charges included felony murder, which carries a potential penalty of life without parole.¹

Guilty Plea and Original Ten-Year Sentence

On January 14, 2021, at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, DeDolph pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, conspiracy to commit assault, hazing, and obstruction of justice. The felony murder charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement. He faced a maximum possible punishment of 22 years and six months.⁷

On January 23, 2021, a military judge sentenced him to ten years of confinement, reduction in rank to E-1, forfeiture of all pay, and a dishonorable discharge. It was by far the heaviest punishment among the four defendants.¹

Why the Sentence Was Thrown Out

On November 15, 2022, the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed DeDolph’s guilty pleas but vacated his sentence entirely and ordered a new sentencing hearing. The three-judge panel was led by Marine Col. Peter Houtz.⁸

The problem was Kevin Maxwell. Maxwell had testified as a government witness at DeDolph’s sentencing. What the defense did not know was that Maxwell, after being convicted and sentenced to four years, had submitted a request to the Navy asking that his sentence be cut to two years. He also asked that no decision on his clemency request be made until after he had fulfilled his obligation to testify against the other defendants. He was, in other words, actively seeking a favor from the same prosecution authority whose case he was helping to prove.⁸

Prosecutors never told DeDolph’s defense team about the clemency request. Under the Supreme Court’s decision in Brady v. Maryland, the government must turn over evidence that could undermine a witness’s credibility. Judge Houtz wrote that there was “a reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been affected by the disclosure of the clemency request,” and that the failure deprived the defense of the ability to challenge whether Maxwell was motivated “to exaggerate his testimony.”⁸ Maxwell’s sentence was ultimately reduced to three years, not the two he had sought.⁹

The 2023 Resentencing

DeDolph was released from prison while awaiting his new sentencing hearing. He retained Tim Parlatore, a defense attorney and former Navy officer who had previously represented SEAL Edward Gallagher. Parlatore argued publicly that DeDolph “had no intent to kill” and described the death as a “mistake” that “went badly.”¹⁰

The resentencing took place on October 6, 2023, at the Washington Navy Yard before Military Judge Derek D. Butler. The new sentence was 18 months of confinement, reduction in rank to E-4 rather than E-1, and a bad-conduct discharge rather than a dishonorable one. DeDolph received credit for 701 days of pretrial confinement he had already served, which exceeded the length of the new sentence.¹¹

On June 27, 2024, the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the new sentence, finding it “correct in law and fact” and that “no error materially prejudicial to Appellant’s substantial rights occurred.”¹¹

How the Co-Defendants Were Punished

The four cases were resolved separately, with wide variation in outcomes:

Adam Matthews reached a plea deal in May 2019. Prosecutors dropped the murder charge in exchange for a guilty plea to hazing and assault and his agreement to testify against the others. He was sentenced to one year in military prison.¹²
Kevin Maxwell pleaded guilty in June 2019 to negligent homicide, conspiracy to commit assault, hazing, obstruction of justice, and making false official statements. He received four years, later reduced to three by the convening authority.⁹
Mario Madera-Rodriguez was the only defendant who pleaded not guilty and went to trial. A military jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, hazing, conspiracy, obstruction, and false official statements, but acquitted him of felony murder and burglary. He received six months of confinement, 90 days of hard labor, and reduction to private, far below the maximum possible 27.5 years.¹³

Criticism and Reform

The light punishments drew sustained criticism. Legal commentators argued that the case warranted a felony murder prosecution through trial rather than plea bargains, pointing to the planned assault, the gathered tools including a sledgehammer and duct tape, the break-in on a sleeping man, and the inherently dangerous chokehold. Some also argued the planned sexual humiliation should have been charged as aggravated sexual contact.¹⁴

In 2019, Gen. Richard Clarke, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, ordered a comprehensive ethics review across the special operations community.¹⁵ The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute later adopted the Melgar case as a formal training case study in hazing prevention, identifying systemic failures including the inaction of Melgar’s team leader, who gave permission to other servicemembers to haze Melgar when they asked. The training materials cited a “lax or permissive climate” and a “lack of leader accountability” as root causes. Updated Department of Defense instructions on hazing definitions and standards took effect in January 2025.¹⁶

Melgar is memorialized on the Green Beret Foundation’s Fallen Heroes wall.²

1
USNI News. SEAL Sentenced to 10 Years in Death of Green Beret Logan Melgar
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Green Beret Foundation. Logan Melgar Memorial
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CBS News. Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar Tony DeDolph
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Task and Purpose. Navy SEAL Tony DeDolph Sentencing Green Beret Logan Melgar
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CNN. Navy SEAL Team 6 Mali Investigation
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ABC News. Members of SEAL Team, Marines Charged in Green Beret’s Murder
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Army Times. Navy SEAL Pleads Guilty in 2017 Strangulation Death of Green Beret
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Stars and Stripes. Green Beret Death Navy SEAL Appeal
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Marine Corps Times. SEAL Sentenced in Green Beret’s Death Has Conviction Overturned
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Yahoo News. Navy SEAL Hires Attorney for Resentencing
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U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. United States v. Dedolph, No. 202100150
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NBC News. Navy SEAL Gets Year in Brig in Hazing Death of Green Beret
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CBS News. Marine Sentenced in 2017 Killing of Green Beret in Africa
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JURIST. Navy Tony DeDolph Commentary
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War on the Rocks. How to Fix a Broken Special Operations Culture
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DEOMI. Hazing Prevention Case Study: SSG Melgar