A Camp Lejeune gate sentry accused of killing a fellow Marine in a negligent shooting in April has been charged by the Marine Corps.
Lance Cpl. Brandon Little faces charges of negligent homicide, involuntary manslaughter and dereliction of duty, said 1st Lt. Adam Flores, a spokesman for II Marine Expeditionary Force.
Little is accused of fatally shooting 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Mark Boterf with his M4 service rifle April 8 while the two were on duty guarding the main gate at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in the early evening. Boterf received a single gunshot wound to the chest and was pronounced dead at Lejeune's Naval Hospital within the hour.
According to northeast Mississippi news site DJournal.com, Boterf, of 2nd Radio Battalion, volunteered for gate sentry duty so another Marine could take time off to get married.
While Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents were called to complete a comprehensive investigation into the incident, Marine officials quickly announced that the shooting appeared to be the result of a negligent discharge.
Little, whose identity has not previously been released, was taken into custody on the scene. II MEF officials said Little was not placed in confinement while officials investigated the incident and remained at his unit. Little is a field artillery cannoneer assigned to 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, and joined the Marine Corps in 2011, said Flores. He deployed once to Okinawa, Japan, in support of the Unit Deployment Program from Oct. 2012 to May 2013, Flores said.
Charges were initially preferred against Little on June 30 — an interim step in the military justice system — with an Article 32 investigative hearing set for Sept. 22. Marine officials said Little was formally charged ahead of that date in keeping with a pretrial agreement.
Officials did not release the details of that agreement.
Flores said a date has not yet been set for Little's court-martial. He said Little will be represented by a military attorney, who he did not identify.
If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Little could face up to 10 years in confinement.
