Ex-Navy diver faces trial in son’s suspected beating death

A former Navy diver at Pearl Harbor will be tried in military court on charges that he murdered his 14-month-old son by striking the boy on the head and shaking him, the Navy said.

Matthew McVeigh was with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 but has since been reclassified an engineman second class.

McVeigh is charged with two specifications of murder, two specifications of manslaughter, and assault in the Sept. 18, 2009, death of Brayden McVeigh, the Navy said.

Officials previously said if Matthew McVeigh was convicted at court-martial of the most serious charges, he faced life in prison.

Bill Doughty, a spokesman for Navy Region Hawaii, said in an email Friday that the charges were referred to general court-martial on Wednesday. No trial date has been set, Doughty said.

According to relatives and Honolulu medical examiner reports, Brayden had suffered a broken arm at 5 weeks, and he once had a black eye. Baby sitters had seen bruises on the little boy.

Matthew and April McVeigh, their daughter, Brodi, then 3, and Brayden were the only people home when Brayden was brought upstairs, not breathing and limp in his father’s arms, on Sept. 18, 2009, April McVeigh said at a preliminary hearing in May.

The boy suffered severe brain damage, was declared brain dead and died two days later when he was taken off life support, family and reports said.

April McVeigh said she had taken methadone for years to ease chronic pain and was "laid up in bed a lot" with a variety of maladies at their Ford Island home in the months before the boy suffered fatal injuries.

An investigator testified that the couple’s bedroom was a mess of rubbish and empty pill bottles. They have since divorced.

McVeigh is not in custody.

"He has the right to a fair trial throughout the process," Doughty said. "In legal terms, the strict legal criteria for pretrial confinement of a presumptively innocent accused have not been met."