A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier pleaded not guilty Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, to charges that he deserted to avoid a court-martial and killed a taxi driver while trying to flee from the Seattle area. (Gary Warner/Stars and Stripes)
A soldier convicted of child rape pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he deserted to avoid the rape trial and killed a taxi driver while trying to flee from the Seattle area.
Pvt. Jonathan Kang Lee, 25, was arraigned at Joint Base Lewis-McChord on charges of premeditated murder, murder while perpetrating a robbery, desertion, resisting arrest, wrongful use of a controlled substance, and failure to obey a lawful order, according to the online case docket.
Lee pleaded not guilty to all the charges and asked for a court-martial panel of enlisted personnel.
Under reforms approved by Congress in late 2023, the newly created Army Office of Special Trial Counsel handles murder, kidnapping, rape and most sex crime prosecutions. Previously, the cases were handled by senior commanders.
The Army is not seeking the death penalty for Lee, according to Michelle McCaskill, spokeswoman for the special trial counsel. The maximum penalty that Lee faces is life in prison without the chance of parole.
Though the death penalty for the charge of premeditated murder remains a possible sentence under the Uniformation Code of Military Justice, no soldier has been executed since 1961.
The Army said pre-trial motions will be heard Nov. 5 and Jan. 3. Lee’s court-martial is scheduled for March 3-14.
Pvt. Jonathan Kang Lee was an Army specialist in an intelligence unit when he was charged with child rape. He was due to go to trial in January. When Lee did not report on Jan. 14, 2024, the Army Criminal Investigation Division issued a “Be On The Lookout” alert with photos of Lee and a vehicle that investigators believed the soldier was driving. (Army Criminal Investigative Division)
Lee is already serving a 64-year sentence for rape and sexual assault against two family members — one younger than 16 and the other younger 11 — between 2020 and 2022. He is confined at the Northwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility, a medium-security military jail at Lewis-McChord.
Lee was an Army specialist in an intelligence unit when he was charged with child rape. He was due to go to trial in January. As with most defendants without prior criminal records, Lee was not in pre-trial detention at the jail. He was confined to the base and required to check in daily with an officer.
When Lee did not report on Jan. 14, the Army Criminal Investigation Division issued a “Be On The Lookout” alert with photos of Lee and a vehicle that CID believed the soldier was driving.
Lee either flagged down or contacted a RediCab taxi, according to authorities. The company is based in Olympia but serves the Lewis-McChord area.
Prosecutors said the taxi went to the sprawling parking lot of Westfield Southcenter Mall in Tukwila, just east of Sea-Tac International Airport. The body of the driver, Nicholas Hokema, 34, was found the next morning of Jan. 15 amid the mostly empty 6,700-space lot. He had been stabbed several times. The red Toyota taxi was gone.
On Jan. 19, a court-martial at Lewis McChord found Lee guilty in absentia of the child sex charges. He was sentenced to 64 years confinement, reduction to lowest rank - private, and a dishonorable discharge.
Authorities found Hokema’s RediCab on Jan. 26 parked near a residential area in Redmond, Wash., about 50 miles north of Lewis-McChord. Tukwila police and Army investigators located Lee at a nearby apartment complex, where he was apprehended — the new court-martial charges Lee with resisting arrest.
