A welcome sign at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. (Abner Guzman/U.S. Air Force)
An Army deserter arrested 12 days after fleeing Joint Base Lewis-McChord while facing a court-martial for sexually assaulting children is being investigated by local police in the death of a taxi driver while he was on the run, service officials said.
Spc. Jonathan Kang Lee, 25, was a signal intelligence analyst at Lewis-McChord who joined the Army in 2017, according to a statement Wednesday from I Corps, the main Army command at the combined Army-Air Force base south of Tacoma, Wash. The soldier was apprehended Friday by Army Criminal Investigation Division personnel with the assistance of local authorities and transferred to military custody, according to officials for Army CID, which is headquartered in Quantico, Va.
Lee is being held at Lewis-McChord. He also has been named as a “person of interest” in the death of a taxi driver from Olympia, which is south of the base. The taxi driver’s body was found Jan. 15, the day after Lee deserted, in a shopping center parking lot in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila.
Lee was last seen at Lewis-McChord on Jan. 14 driving a white 2011 Honda Pilot sport utility vehicle. He was scheduled for a trial on Jan. 16 on six charges of sexual assault on children, as covered by Article 120b of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The trial stemmed from incidents in 2020 involving Lee in Steilacoom. Lee was originally arrested and prosecuted in 2022 by the Pierce County District Attorney under Washington’s child rape and molestation laws. News reports said charges were withdrawn after the Army took over the prosecution and the proceedings moved to Lewis-McChord.
Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett told The News Tribune in September 2022 that the move ensured Lee could be fully prosecuted since some of the crimes had occurred elsewhere, with investigators looking at incidents in Georgia.
“The military is better situated to handle this case, as some of the alleged abuse might have happened outside the state of Washington,” she wrote.
The Army issued a “WANTED” poster for Spc. Jonathan Kang Lee after he deserted from Joint Base Lewis-McChord on Jan. 14, 2024. “BOLO” is an acronym for “Be On the Look Out.” Lee was apprehended Friday, Jan. 26, 2024, in Redmond, 43 miles north of the base near Tacoma, Wash. (U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division )
The military court docket for Lee’s prosecution at Lewis-McChord shows that he was arraigned on the six sexual-assault violations of the UCMJ on Feb. 16, 2023.
After legal motions in April, an unspecified plea agreement was made, but the docket notes Lee withdrew from the deal on May 23.
On July 9, the docket shows he pleaded not guilty and invoked his right to be tried by a military panel that included enlisted soldiers. Legal motions finished Oct. 9, and the trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 16.
After Lee left the base and was accused of deserting his post, the court-martial proceeded without Lee and found him guilty in absentia.
Lee was sentenced to 64 years confinement on Jan. 19, according to the Army CID bulletin last week seeking public help in his apprehension.
On Tuesday, Tukwila police released a statement that Lee was a “person of interest” in the death of Nicholas Hokema, a taxi driver from Olympia, the state capital.
Hokema was found dead in the parking lot of the Westfield Southcenter mall. Police sought the taxi that Hokema was driving, a four-door 2012 Toyota Camry with RediCab brand markings and a taxi light on the roof. Authorities found it in the Redmond Ridge neighborhood north of Seattle on Sunday.
According to a search warrant obtained by The News Tribune, Lee was arrested at a nearby address in the 9500 block of 226th Place NE. The newspaper said King County prosecutors have not yet filed charges against Lee.
