Hawaii soldier pleads not guilty to murder of Army veteran wife
A Hawaii-based soldier has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of his Army veteran wife, whose body was found stuffed in a garbage can outside a house on Schofield Barracks.
Spc. Raul Hernandez Perez, a signals intelligence analyst assigned to the 500th Military Intelligence Brigade, also pleaded not guilty on Thursday in military court to disobeying a non-commissioned officer’s order that he have no contact with his wife, Selena Roth, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. The couple were going through a divorce initiated by the 23-year-old soldier, who wanted to get back together with a high school sweetheart in Florida.
Despite that, on Jan. 9 — the day of their anniversary which they called “Raul Day” — they spent the day together and went to Pearlridge mall, where they were seen on camera footage holding hands,
Just less than a month before her death, Hernandez Perez took out a $100 million life insurance police on Roth, also a one-time signals intelligence analyst and mother of a young daughter.
On Jan. 10, he googled how many swings it took to kill someone with a bat, and then beat and stabbed her to death.
Prosecutors said Hernandez Perez used a several-foot-long piece of wood to beat her on the back of her head and used a kitchen knife to stab her four times in the back.
Her body was found just days later on Jan. 13.
The military judge set a trial date of Nov. 8. If convicted of the murder charge, Hernandez Perez faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He was being held in the brig on Ford Island.
With News Wire Services
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