Trial to Begin for Second Fort Riley Soldier Charged With Farmhouse Murder

[Judi Lynn]

Trial to Begin for Second Fort Riley Soldier Charged With Farmhouse Murders
By JOHN MILBURN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

FORT RILEY, Kan. Jul 20, 2005 — Last month, Sgt. Eric Colvin's testimony helped convict a fellow soldier of killing two other Fort Riley soldiers. Now Colvin faces his own court-martial.

Colvin, 24, is charged with two counts of premeditated murder for the Sept. 13, 2004, shooting deaths of Staff Sgt. Matthew Werner, 30, and Spc. Christopher D. Hymer, 23, at a farmhouse about 30 miles west of Fort Riley.

A court-martial for Colvin, of Papillion, Neb., was scheduled to begin Wednesday at Fort Riley and was expected to last one day. Colvin hasn't entered a plea to the charges.

Another soldier, Sgt. Aaron Stanley, has already been sentenced to life in prison for the shootings. Stanley, 23, was found guilty of two counts of premeditated murder. Stanley confessed in court to the shootings, but claimed the acts were in self-defense.

Prosecutors said Stanley shot the two men to conceal an illegal drug trafficking operation, believing the victims to be informants for Fort Riley police. Stanley and Colvin had acknowledged manufacturing methamphetamine and growing marijuana at the farmhouse.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=958213&CMP=OTC-RS...

For anyone who's interested, Ft. Riley is located west of Kansas City, and Topeka, and Manhattan, Ks., and slightly south. It's the Army base connected to "Junction City." Ft. Riley has lost quite a few soldiers in Iraq.