A soldier from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his friend and fellow soldier last year. 

Zachary Ponder was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the death of his friend Seth Brabant, according to a report in The Leaf-Chronicle. 

The jury found Ponder should be sentenced to life in prison and must serve 51 years before he is eligible for parole, the report said. 

Ponder and Brabant were at a party in Montgomery County, Tennessee, near Fort Campbell, on March 5, 2016, according to testimony in court.

Ponder drove away from the party, with Brabant drunk and passed out in the vehicle, according to testimony. Ponder tied a shoestring around his friend’s neck as a prank, he testified, saying he intended to take the shoestring off when Brabant woke up, according to the news report.

Ponder left the vehicle, came back and saw that Brabant had turned blue. Ponder panicked and pushed Brabant out of the vehicle, thinking he was dead, the report said.

A passerby found Brabant unconscious by the side of a road in Stewart County, and he was taken to a medical center in critical condition, according to an Army Times report shortly after the incident. 

Brabant was taken off life support and died four days later. 

Ponder was detained and charged with first-degree murder on the day Brabant died, Army Times reported.

“This was an execution, not an accident,” District Attorney Ray Crouch said in closing arguments, quoted in the Leaf-Chronicle report Wednesday. “It’s not a prank.”

Defense attorney Chase Smith said Ponder’s act was a crime, but not first-degree murder.  Crouch disagreed. 

“Just pushing him out of the car to die is premeditated murder right there,” Crouch said in the report. “Whether it was intentional or not.”


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