Pre and post deployment support

[jmm99]

Anyone care to bet that these two were scumbags before they enlisted and simply reverted back to their default personalities when they got home?Anyone care to bet that the accused have UCMJ actions signed by the above officer in their jackets?

on either of the above propositions - that is my professional lawyer mode talking.

If I were the prosecutor (or defense counsel, for that matter), I would be very interested in their priors (if any) - both pre- and during military service. I would also be interested in any prior psychological workups of record.

The article suggests, as to one of these gems, definite pathology:

The affidavit said Marko told investigators he had violent sex with Lawrence before slitting her throat and leaving her to die in the foothills west of Colorado Springs.

That (to me) does not mean "not guilty by reason of insanity". All jurisdictions should have the alternative verdict form of "guilty, but mentally ill" - which means the criminal is first treated for the mental illness and then serves out the balance of the sentence for the crime.

There are not enough facts in what we know (from the article) to make hasty assumptions. Those facts will develop for those who want to follow the case.

There sure ain't enough facts to speculate that these crimes were proximately caused by the perps' military service - or even that military service was a "but for" causational factor.

PS: A few years ago, a small Houghton County village had four murders in one year (two by a serial killer who killed elsewhere in the area). Based solely on the bare statistics, one could conclude (falsely) that place was the Murder Capital of the USA.