Two U.S. Marines attached to a unit from Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, Japan, will return to Australia later this month following their arrests on separate charges filed by a Townsville, Australia, court in early February.
Lance Cpl. Craig Meeks, 21, charged with attempted murder, and Staff Sgt. Beryl Wilson Jr., 33, charged with assault “occasioning bodily harm while armed,” currently are detained on Okinawa, a Marine Corps staff judge advocate official confirmed Thursday. They were in Iwakuni as part of a Unit Deployment Program.
Both Marines were in Australia for Operation Southern Frontier 2004 training exercise with Iwakuni’s Marine Air Logistics Squadron 12.
Australian authorities have retained jurisdiction in the cases, stated 1st Lt. John M. Bryant, deputy staff judge advocate for the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing on Okinawa, in an e-mail message Thursday.
Marine Corps 1st Lt. Al Eskalis, a spokesman for the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, said it is “inappropriate for us to comment on any of the legal aspects of the cases because the Australian legal system has the jurisdiction.”
Eskalis said Meeks and Wilson are detained “under restriction until trial.”
The Marines are tentatively slated to return to face charges March 22, according to the Townsville (Australia) Bulletin’s Feb. 6 edition.
The charges are based on an incident around 1 a.m. Feb. 1 at a Townsville nightclub in which a 23-year-old university student was punched and struck with a bottle before being stabbed in the neck with a knife. Charges were filed Feb. 5 after a local police investigation into the incident at Bullwinkle’s nightclub.
A police official in Townsville, Sgt. Adam Ainsworth, told the local newspaper that Wilson got into an argument and punched the victim in the face before smashing a bottle on the side of his head.
In the newspaper account, the police sergeant testified that the student tried to fight back. Then his head was grabbed from behind and he was stabbed twice in the neck. After the stabbing, the knife blade was pulled across his throat, the sergeant said.
Meeks is suspected of brandishing the knife and Wilson the bottle, the newspaper reported.
Court testimony indicated that the victim was bleeding profusely and required 23 stitches. The victim identified Meeks and Wilson during a photograph line-up, the investigator noted.
Bail was refused for the two Feb. 5 by Magistrate Graeme Hillan, who considered the Marines too much of a flight risk in light of the seriousness of the charges, the report added, because they were scheduled to return to the United States shortly on the heels of their six-month UDP tour.
Greg Lynham, a barrister representing the Marines, immediately objected and filed a bail application with a higher court, where unspecified bail conditions were allowed the next day.
