False confession in rape gets Marine dishonorable discharge

Kim Smith

Tuesday, March 19, 2002 | 9:21 a.m.

A false confession to help a fellow Marine who was convicted of sexual assault has earned Ryan Fulton five years at hard labor and a dishonorable discharge.

Fulton pleaded guilty Monday in a military courtroom in San Diego to obstruction of justice and using and possessing LSD.

He was sentenced immediately afterward, said Col. William Durrett, a Marine staff judge advocate.

Fulton, who will serve his time in the brig at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego, was also demoted from lance corporal to private and dismissed from the Marine Corps, Durrett said.

Fulton last year claimed that he sexually assaulted a Las Vegas woman and that Lance Cpl. Raymond Flores was wrongfully convicted by a Clark County jury.

Flores, 23, was sentenced in January 2001 to 10 to 25 years in prison for the rape of a 32-year-old mother of three in August 1999. He was acquitted of a separate sodomy charge.

The woman told jurors that she was at a local nightclub with friends when she saw Flores, who was an acquaintance of a Marine whom she was dating.

The victim told police and a jury the last clear memory she has of that night was accepting a shot of tequila from Flores.

She awoke nine hours later in a motel room shared by Flores and Fulton, who were stationed in San Diego but were in Las Vegas to participate in military exercises.

Because the alleged assault occurred in Las Vegas, Clark County prosecutors took jurisdiction over the case and successfully prosecuted Flores.

But nine months after Flores was sentenced, Fulton came forward to confess that he had sodomized the woman and may have committed the rape.

Military investigators then ordered Fulton to take a polygraph, and DNA evidence recovered in the case was sent out for additional tests.

The DNA tests again linked Flores to the sexual assault, however, and Fulton failed the polygraph.

Clark County prosecutors issued a warrant for Fulton's arrest on sexual assault charges, and District Judge Kathy Hardcastle -- over the objections of prosecutors -- released Flores from prison pending a new trial.

Fulton recanted his confession in January, saying he was pressured by fellow Marines into helping Flores. He also admitted to using LSD in Las Vegas that summer.

Durrett, who has been practicing law since 1976, said he had never seen a false confession.

"Fulton's thinking was that he wouldn't be subject to liability because he was due to get out of the Marine Corps," Durrett said. "He said in court that he did it to help his friend out and that he didn't think it would hurt him."

Despite Fulton's recantation Hardcastle decided to move forward with Flores' second trial. Before she could schedule it, however, the Marines arrested Flores at his new assignment -- a Las Vegas Marine reserve unit -- and transported him back to San Diego.

An Article 32 hearing, which will determine whether Flores should be tried by the military, has not been held, Durrett said. If found guilty in military court, Flores faces life in prison and could receive a dishonorable or bad conduct discharge.

Clark County Deputy District Attorney William Kephart said he intends to ask Hardcastle to reconsider her decision to grant Flores a new trial. If Hardcastle agrees, Flores would begin serving his 10 to 25-year sentence in a Nevada prison again.