Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Olsen and his wife, Jessica “Jesse” Arguinzoni Olsen, pose in this undated photo provided by Jesse’s sister. (Dominique Arguinzoni)
A U.S. Navy officer faces 23 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to killing his wife last year in a Japanese hotel, according to a Navy spokesman.
Lt. Cmdr. Christopher Olsen, during a hearing Wednesday at Naval Base San Diego, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death last October of Jessica “Jesse” Arguinzoni Olsen, U.S. Naval Forces Japan spokesman Cmdr. Paul Macapagal said by email.
Olsen will be separated from the Navy and forfeit all pay and allowances. He paid $10,654 in restitution to his wife’s family for funeral expenses, Macapagal said.
Olsen was scheduled for a court-martial in October at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on charges of unpremeditated murder and obstruction of justice. The obstruction charge was “withdrawn and dismissed pursuant to the plea agreement,” Macapagal said by phone Thursday.
Jesse Olsen, 37, was found dead in a hotel room in Fukuoka, about 80 miles northeast of Sasebo Naval Base, Japan, on the morning of Oct. 28.
The Navy alleges that Christopher Olsen — at the time assigned to the amphibious transport dock USS New Orleans at Sasebo — killed his wife “on or about Oct. 26” by “strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head,” according to a charge sheet released May 13.
Jesse Olsen’s body was returned to her family on Nov. 16, her sister, Dominque Arguinzoni, told Stars and Stripes in May. She said the family was told that Jesse suffered injuries to her head, including her face, and that her jaw and hyoid bones were broken.
The family’s request to review the pending plea deal was denied, Arguinzoni wrote in an Aug. 7 email to Stars and Stripes.
She said the family “made it explicitly clear that we did not support offering a plea deal.”
“While the sentence brings some accountability, no number of years will ever equal the life Jesse lost,” Arguinzoni wrote Thursday in an email from the United States.
“We did receive the restitution for her funeral expenses, but no payment can undo our loss. What our family seeks is not financial — it is justice, remembrance, and for Jesse’s voice to continue to be heard. We are grateful that her voice was acknowledged in court, and our deepest wish remains that she be remembered for the vibrant, loving person she was, not only for the crime that took her from us.”
Macapagal could not immediately provide a response to Arguinzoni’s statements.
Christopher Olsen’s defense attorney, Lt. Cmdr. Daniel Phipps of the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
AloJapan.com