Sailor gets life in son’s killing

A Navy seaman from Colfax was sentenced Monday to life in prison for assaulting his 28-day-old son and murdering the infant by sitting on him.

Robert J. Howard, 21, currently is posted to the Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan, about 40 miles south of Tokyo, but he likely will serve his sentence at Fort Leavenworth, near Leavenworth, Kan., a Navy spokesman said.

In addition to handing down the life term, Cmdr. John Maksym, acting as military judge, ordered Howard to be demoted to seaman recruit, stripped of his military pay and benefits and to be discharged dishonorably.

Howard pleaded guilty Sept. 20 to murder, five counts of “assault by means likely to cause grievous bodily harm” and one count of “assault consummated by a battery.”

According to the Stars and Stripes newspaper for military personnel, Howard admitted during a court-martial hearing that he sat on his son, Logan, on March 9 to keep the baby silent while he played Pokemon on a Game Boy machine.

“I wanted complete concentration for the game,” the newspaper quoted Howard.

He also admitted sitting on the infant on an earlier occasion, claiming he was practicing wrestling moves he had seen on television.

Howard joined the Navy in 2001 immediately after graduating from Colfax High School.

Principal Michael Morgan said in a previous interview that Howard had no record of disciplinary problems.

“He had a reasonably good grade-point average,” Morgan said. “He took fairly competitive classes, as far as chemistry, upper-end English, economics, and business and marketing. He took two years of Spanish.”

A teacher who declined to be identified described Howard as “caring and considerate, and very helpful to me as a student.”

Howard attended middle school and high school in Colfax, but previously lived in Lewiston and Sacramento, Calif.

Howard was a hospitalman who completed medical corps training in 2002 and married a fellow medical corps member he had known a month, according to Stars and Stripes. Their son, Logan, was born in February this year, and the woman is seeking a divorce.

Howard’s wife reportedly was sleeping when he sat on the baby’s chest on March 9. Howard said he performed CPR when he noticed the infant had stopped breathing, and the mother called an ambulance, but it was too late.

As part of a plea bargain in which some charges were dropped, Howard also pleaded guilty to murder and to assaults on two previous occasions.

In one case, according to Stars and Stripes, Howard said he used his hand to smother his son until the color drained from the baby’s face as a means of curing hiccups.

The newspaper said the other assault occurred the day before the murder. In that case, Howard testified that he angrily twisted his son’s collar until the infant passed out.

“I started yelling at my son, ‘You won’t eat. You don’t want to sleep. I need to really use the toilet, but you won’t let me,’ ” Stars and Stripes quoted Howard.