NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Chief Warrant Officer Adam Matthews was convicted Thursday for his role in the 2017 hazing death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar in Bamako, Mali.
A member of SEAL Team 6, Matthews said he used duct tape to bind Melgar’s ankles and hands while another SEAL put Melgar in a chokehold that was ultimately fatal.
During the Special Court Martial at Naval Station Norfolk, Michelle Melgar testified about how the Army notified her of her husband’s death. She said the couple were in constant contact while Melgar was in Mali, and she knew something was wrong when her husband didn’t text her that June morning.
“All I could think is this is wrong. So I waited for the doorbell to ring, and it did,” Melgar testified.
“It was an Army chaplain and a notification officer. They started reading a statement about his death. ‘Logan Melgar had been ill, was convulsing and throwing up blood.'”
“I told them you’re lying, because I had FaceTimed with him three hours before he died. He wasn’t sick at all.”
“I said ‘I think someone killed Logan.’ They asked ‘who do you think killed your husband?’ I said ‘the SEALS.'”
Michelle Melgar said Logan had mentioned in recent conversations he was having trouble with members of the team, that they had been doing some “immature things.”
But Michelle Melgar said no one took her seriously until 19 days later. That’s when she learned the NCIS was picking up Logan’s case — and two SEALS were suspected of foul play.
A spokesman for Special Forces Command at Fort Bragg told me this afternoon they could not comment on Michelle Melgar’s testimony — because three service members remain accused in Melgar’s death.
They include SEAL Anthony DeDolph, who like Matthews was from SEAL Team 6, along with Marine Raiders Mario Madera-Rodriguez and Kevin Maxwell.