Told Paramour of AIDS Testing, Sailor Testifies

A sailor accused of AIDS-related assault and adultery testified at his court-martial Tuesday that he told his paramour he had tested positive for the AIDS virus before she had sex with him, and that he used a condom.

“I told her I’d been up in the hospital and (tested) positive for HIV, the AIDS antibodies. She didn’t ask no questions, she just sat there watching the TV,” Petty Officer 2nd Class John Crawford testified.

Crawford told the seven-member court-martial panel that Jeannie Elmer “sat in my lap and said it was OK, that she was going to take care of me. I thought it was sweet.”

A defense witness, Yolande LaMagdeleine, testified earlier Tuesday that Elmer was drunk when she was with Crawford in his barracks. She said that the next day, when she told Elmer that Crawford had tested positive for the AIDS virus, Elmer said: “I’m going to kill him. I was just with him last night.”

The Navy accused Crawford of having unprotected sex with Elmer, 28, on April 15, 1987, and not telling her he had, two months earlier, tested positive for the HIV virus, believed to cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Crawford, 27, of Magnolia, Ark., shows no symptoms of the fatal disease. Elmer has taken three tests for the AIDS antibodies, all negative.

Crawford took the stand on the second day of his military trial at the Navy’s Treasure Island facility in San Francisco Bay. It is the Navy’s first such court case.

Elmer testified Monday that Crawford never told her he had tested positive for AIDS and that he did not use a condom.

Crawford faces three charges: wrongfully having a visitor in his room after 11 p.m.; committing assault by wrongfully exposing another person to the human immunodeficiency virus; and wrongfully having unprotected sex with a married woman, not his wife, while knowing he had a sexually transmitted virus.

If convicted, Crawford could be stripped of rank and privileges, dishonorably discharged and sentenced to 10 years in the brig.