Witness to Murder Says He Saw Five Sailors Beat Gay Shipmate

A shipmate who witnessed the beating of gay sailor Allen R. Schindler in Japan last October said he saw five sailors pummel Schindler outside a public restroom before two of the attackers dragged him inside to continue the fatal assault.

Keith Sims, who was a gunner’s mate aboard the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood, said he has volunteered information to Navy investigators but has yet to be called by Navy prosecutors as a witness in the case.

Sims’ assertion that five sailors took part in the beating contradicts the Navy’s version of the assault. The Navy has said that Terry M. Helvey, who is charged with murder, was the only sailor who attacked Schindler, a crewman aboard the Belleau Wood, last Oct. 27 in a restroom outside the Navy base at Sasebo, Japan.

Schindler, 22, of Chicago Heights, Ill., was waiting to be discharged because he was homosexual. The Navy said it is investigating the killing as a possible gay-bashing.

In a telephone interview from the Navy base at Treasure Island, Sims said he witnessed the nighttime attack from about 35 yards away. Although he had known Schindler for about a year, Sims, 20, said it was so dark that he initially did not know the identity of the victim or the attackers. Afterward, Sims said, he saw Helvey and Charles A. Vins run from the restroom.

Helvey, 22, and Vins, 20, were both airmen aboard the Belleau Wood. Despite Sims’ comments and an initial Navy report of the killing, Navy spokesmen said Vins was not involved in the attack.

However, in a report dated Oct. 28, written less than 10 hours after the killing, Navy investigators said Vins had “confessed to the assault” and implicated Helvey. Vins later agreed to testify against Helvey, and the Navy agreed to prosecute him on lesser charges, according to Navy documents.

Vins was convicted on two counts of failing to report a crime and one count of resisting arrest, and he was sentenced to one year in custody. Vins’ time in custody was then limited to four months in exchange for his testimony against Helvey.

Sims, a confidant of Schindler, also provided new details of events before the killing.

Schindler, Sims said, tried to report harassment and threats from shipmates through the ship’s chain of command, but his complaints never got beyond the division officer. He said Schindler told him he once found pinned to his bed a note that read “we don’t like fags.”

Navy spokesmen in Hawaii and Japan have said that Schindler never reported harassment or threats to his superiors.

Another sailor assigned to a different ship said in January that Schindler complained to him that his reports were ignored. The sailor, who met Schindler while both were undergoing alcoholic counseling, requested anonymity and spoke through his San Diego attorney, Glen A. Buries.

And although Navy officials had said they had no knowledge of a journal kept by Schindler in which he wrote about the threats against him, Buries’ client signed an affidavit in January swearing that he had read the diary.

The affidavit was forwarded to Navy prosecutors in Japan. Two days later, Navy officials provided a copy of the journal to Schindler’s mother.

On Wednesday, Sims said two shore patrolmen and another witness to the murder carried a battered and bloody Schindler from the restroom to a nearby footbridge to await an ambulance.

“It took the ambulance 45 minutes to an hour to respond. Allen was gasping for air and having like epileptic fits. . . . When the ambulance arrived, they put a breather bottle on his face to get air into his lungs. They squeezed the bottle and blood started flowing out of his mouth,” Sims said.

Although Sims had known Schindler for about a year, he was unable to recognize the bloody figure on the bridge.

“He was beaten so badly I didn’t know it was Allen until the hospital called the ship at 2 a.m. or 2:30 a.m. to notify us that he had died 10 minutes earlier,” Sims said.

Schindler’s mother, Dorothy Hajdys, said her son was beaten beyond recognition. She said the family was able to identify him through tattoos on his forearms.

Before he asked to be discharged because he was homosexual, Schindler took a rebellious turn to protest the harassment and threats against him, Sims said. In September, Schindler, who was a radioman, sent a message to the fleet that he was “too cute to be square,” Sims said.

He said that Schindler appeared wearing an earring before a disciplinary hearing for sending the unauthorized radio message, then announced to the captain that he was gay and requested a discharge.

Sims said he was interviewed by Navy investigators in December and January about Schindler’s murder. The investigators called Schindler “a problem sailor” during questioning and denied that he was a victim of gay-bashing, Sims said.

Navy officials did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Sims was scheduled to receive an administrative discharge on Feb. 13, said his civilian attorney, Steve Collier. However, the Navy has put a hold on the discharge, Collier said.

“The only explanation they gave us was that Sims is suddenly under investigation, but they won’t tell us why. My feeling is that they’re trying to decide what to do with his information, which he has now released publicly,” Collier said. “It doesn’t fit into their version of events.”

Earlier this month, attorney Buries sent letters to the San Diego offices of U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats from California, stating that sailors who had stepped forward with information about the killing were being harassed.