US airman found not guilty of murder in the stabbing death of a man in Germany

SPANGDAHLEM AIR FORCE BASE, Germany – A military court jury on Friday found Airman 1st Class Grant Harrison not guilty of premeditated murder after witnesses gave conflicting testimony about a confrontation between the two airmen and Michael Ovsjannikov, who was stabbed to death near his home .

The verdict was handed down after a deliberation that began on Wednesday evening. Harrison, a temporary aircraft journeyman with the 726th Air Mobility Squadron, was also found not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and obstruction of justice.

He faced the maximum penalty of life imprisonment and has been in the military prison in Sembach since August 20, 2023, i.e. the day after Ovsyannikov’s death.

Testimony shows that Ovsjannikov, 28, was a high-level martial arts athlete and was well known in the community.

When the verdict was read, the victim’s family members showed no reaction. Others sitting in the gallery behind the defense table cried silently.

Government prosecutors told the jury during closing arguments Wednesday that the murder charge against Harrison comes down to “who had the knife” the night Ovsjannikov was killed, citing several witnesses who testified that they saw Harrison with a knife in the hours before Ovsjannikov’s death.

Harrison, 26, admitted to the stabbing during his first interviews with law enforcement, which defense lawyers and the government admitted while discussing procedural issues with military judge Col. Jennifer Powell.

As the discussion shows, the guilty plea was suppressed in the earlier ruling and the jury was never informed about it during the proceedings.

The murder weapon was described as a black Benchmade folding knife, found in broad daylight after Ovsjannikov’s death in the Lieser River, under the bridge leading back to Harrison’s residence in Wittlich. There was still Ovsyannikov’s blood on the knife.

Harrison’s defense attorneys said the crux of the case was not who had the gun, but who used it.

Grover Baxley, Harrison’s civil defense attorney, argued that eyewitness testimony from the fight itself, crime scene analysis and DNA evidence pointed to Sgt. Robert Cain II as the one who killed Ovsyannikov.

The government, in his opinion, was pursuing the “wrong man.”

“You have two competing theories: either Sgt. Cain or Airman Harrison. (…)When you have so much evidence for a credible alternative theory, it’s impossible to go beyond reasonable doubt,” Baxley said.

Cain worked in the same squadron as Harrison, whom he described as his former best friend during his testimony.

Last December, Cain was extrajudicially punished for his role in the crime, and the Air Force did not disclose the terms of his sentence.

Cain was given immunity in exchange for cooperating with the government, an agreement that meant he could not be prosecuted for anything he said in court except lying under oath.

According to testimony, on the evening of August 18, 2023, friends gathered at Harrison’s in Wittlich for drinks before heading to the annual Pig Fest street fair.

By about 2 a.m., only four people remained in the group: Harrison, Cain, the woman he later married, and the wife of another airman.

According to court testimony, they went to the bar for a last round of drinks before closing when they encountered Ovsjannikov.

Black-and-white surveillance footage from a clothing store that was played to the jury shows the group walking past shortly before the stabbing.

Cain’s wife testified that Ovsyannikov spit on her unexpectedly and without provocation.

She testified that she did not know Ovsjannikov, despite the testimony of a witness who said he saw the victim talking to her the previous evening while she was with Caine and Harrison at a local bar.

She said Ovsyannikov was leaning against a wall with two other men. Cain’s wife said she pretended to spit on Ovsyannikov when he jumped up and approached her.

She said she was afraid Ovsyannikov would attack her. Kain intervened and stood between her and Ovsyannikov, she added.

Cain testified that’s when the fight started. He testified that Ovsjannikov punched him in the temple and saw “bright white lights” that stunned him.

The next thing he remembered was waking up on his back, with Ovsyannikov on top of him and Harrison standing next to him with a knife, he said.

Cain was wearing a black baseball cap that night, a shoulder bag with a zippered pocket and a silver chain, details that were key to the defense’s case.

Dmytro Mynka, who trained under Ovsyannikov a few months before his death, was at the scene.

“It was a man in black shorts and a baseball cap who stabbed Micha with a knife,” Mynka testified in court, calling Owsyannikov a pseudonym.

He said the man who stabbed Ovsyannikov also had a shoulder bag and he believed the man took a knife from it.

Mynka added that he had been drinking alcohol that night, and the government asked him if it was possible that he had confused Harrison and Cain.

“I don’t think so… I remember the moment of the stabbing very well,” Mynka replied.

The government called Mynka an “outlier” in the case. His memory cannot be trusted because what he saw was extremely traumatizing, said prosecutor Lt. Col. Christie Jones, noting that other witnesses to the incident described him as hysterical.

Mynka was the only person giving evidence who claimed to have witnessed the stabbing itself.

In closing, Jones said Ovsjannikov was a trained martial arts fighter and yet “he didn’t have a single defensive wound on his body because Airman Harrison came from behind and no one saw him.”

Ovsjannikov received four stab wounds, the most serious ones in the back and one side of the abdomen.

According to court testimony, the only blood from the victim found on Harrison was a stain on the rubber insole of Harrison’s left shoe, which, according to court testimony, also contained the defendant’s blood.

Adelheid Steffen, another defense witness, said she saw what looked like two men wrestling down a narrow road as they left the street festival.

Only two people were directly involved in the fight, but she added that a third person was walking near the two and “he went crazy.”

Marius Schaefer, who claimed to be Ovsyannikov’s best friend and training partner, said after the trial that he believed Harrison was guilty.

He believes that Mynka doesn’t remember the fight clearly because he was drinking. But he said it was possible Cain killed Ovsjannikov.

“He’s definitely one of them,” he said of the two. But ultimately, he said, Ovsyannikov “will not come back to life,” regardless of who is released.

German and U.S. officials investigate criminal cases involving German citizens and U.S. personnel to determine jurisdiction before initiating criminal proceedings.

Soldiers are usually tried under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, while civilians are sent to a German court, according to a 2023 army statement.