After taking a plea agreement, the Army soldier shared disturbing details of the assault in court. He said he and another soldier filmed the assault on Snapchat.
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — Editor’s note: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing to read.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. Additional resources are available on the Washington State Department of Health’s website.
Disturbing new details about a crime committed in the barracks of Joint Base Lewis McChord were shared in a military courtroom on Wednesday.
One of the four soldiers charged with sexual assault in connection to the incident detailed the crime after agreeing to a plea deal.
Audio and video recordings are not allowed inside military courtrooms, but KING 5 had a crew inside for the duration of Wednesday’s hearing.
Deron Gordon,20, is one of the four soldiers who have been charged in connection to a sexual assault of a college student that happened in October of 2024 in the barracks.
Gordon took a plea deal where he pleaded guilty to sexual assault and sexual misconduct. As part of the plea agreement, his charges of attempted sexual assault, obstructing justice, and conspiracy to commit sexual assault were dropped.
Gordon recounted the crime as he took his plea deal, admitting to what he did.
He said that he and another soldier followed the college student into a bedroom after she had been drinking with them. He said she was unstable walking into the room and when they went inside she was on the bed and not responsive.
Gordon said he and the other soldier each proceeded to have sex with her and they filmed each other sexually assaulting her on Snapchat.
His defense team said he is not pleading guilty to committing the crime while she was unconscious, but in his own words in court Wednesday Gordon described the victim as being unresponsive, limp, and having her eyes closed. He said she appeared to be asleep.
KING 5 asked military officials why Gordon was charged with sexual assault and not rape. They said this was because “Gordon committed sexual acts against the victim while she was incapable of consenting due to voluntary alcohol intoxication.” They said that rape is defined as “a sexual act accomplished by applying unlawful force, threatening serious violence, rendering the victim unconscious, or impairing the victim through the forceful or unknowing ingestion of a drug, intoxicant, or other substance.”
The other three soldiers’ court proceedings are at different points in the legal process, as they are all being treated as separate cases.
Gordon is expected to be sentenced on Thursday.
According to his plea agreement he faces four to eight years in prison. Without that plea agreement he would have faces up to 42 years in confinement for the charges he pleaded guilty to.
