A U.S. Army deserter pleaded guilty during his court martial Wednesday and was sentenced for the murder of a Tumwater cab driver along with several other crimes.
Pvt. Jonathan Kang Lee, 26, a former signal intelligence analyst at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, fled the military base in January 2024 just as his court martial for child sex crimes was set to begin. When he was on the run, Nicholas Hokema was found dead from a stabbing in a Southcenter Mall parking lot in Tukwila on Jan. 15, 2024, The News Tribune previously reported .
Lee was convicted and sentenced in-absentia for the child sex crimes. The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and local police arrested Lee about a week later, and he returned to military custody, according to a U.S. Army news release…