Pearl Harbor sailor on trial
in shooting death of buddy

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
gkakesako@starbulletin.com

A quarrel between friends over a $70 phone card bill resulted in the shooting death of a Pearl Harbor sailor last May, Navy prosecutors contend.

Lt. Cmdr. Barry Harrison, Navy prosecutor, told the one-woman, nine-man military jury of officers that Seaman Gregory Ballard, 29, was shot five times outside the enlisted quarters at Pearl Harbor on May 4 by Petty Officer Hawan Campbell after three hours of drinking and clubbing in Waikiki.

Harrison, in his opening statement yesterday in what is expected to be a three-week court-martial, described the shooting as "a horrible human tragedy."

He said that Campbell, 23, confessed to Navy investigators that he shot Ballard five times, the last shot to the back of Ballard's head with a .40-caliber Glock pistol from a distance of two to four inches.

Harrison said Campbell, who is facing one charge of premeditated murder, even was willing to go with 20 Navy investigators the day following the murder to search for the pistol that the defendant said he tossed out of his car somewhere between Pearl Harbor and his home in Waipahu. The Glock was never found.

However, Philip Cave, Ballard's private attorney, said Campbell's confession was made under duress and threats by Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents.

Cave also said Navy investigators were never able to find any traces of Ballard's blood or brain matter -- since the weapon was fired at such close range -- on Campbell's clothing, shoes or in his car. Cave also questioned why Navy investigators never tried to look for "a third party" after bloodstains on Campbell's shirt were determined not to be those of the victim.

In a statement sent to the news media, Campbell said he never was given a lawyer when he requested one and was interrogated for four hours.

"During that time," Campbell said, "I was telling them (Navy investigators) that I just wanted to go home. I was then threatened with the 'needle' if I didn't tell them what they wanted to hear. ... I felt the only way to leave the interrogation room and avoid the death penalty was to tell them what they wanted to hear. I thought the physical evidence would set me free."

Campbell maintains that Navy investigators are making him the "scapegoat" because they failed to follow other leads and statements from other witnesses since, within hours of the crime, they had decided that he was the killer.

Prosecutor Harrison said the shooting at 3:54 a.m. May 4 was initiated by an "ugly confrontation" between Ballard and Campbell an hour earlier in the well-lit parking lot of Gabrunas Hall, Pearl Harbor's enlisted quarters. There the two sailors engaged in a loud argument that ended in a pushing contest, he said.

The confrontation was started, Harrison maintains, because Ballard stole the calling-card access number of his roommate Petty Officer Eric Vaughn and gave it to Campbell, who ran up a $70 phone bill.