NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A U.S. naval officer who said he took decommissioned fighter jet parts as souvenirs pleaded guilty to stealing government property, court records show.
Matthew Sutton, 44, a retired Navy chief petty officer, readily led Navy inspectors investigating a bribery plot to his back yard shed, where he kept parts of an ejection seat and a 20mm machine gun barrel, among other pieces, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Thursday.
The government agreed to drop more serious charges, but Sutton faces a maximum of 10 years in prison at his April sentencing hearing, the newspaper said.
Sutton was assigned in 2005 to a unit at Oceana Naval Air Station for the purpose of decommissioning of F-14 fighter jets. All the parts were to have been destroyed, but Sutton took some home, The Virginian-Pilot reported.
Sutton, along with co-defendants Wayne Miller and Jody Goucher, was charged with conspiracy to steal fighter jet parts in exchange for gifts and cash.
Miller, a director of a New Jersey aviation museum, and Goucher, who worked in an office with Sutton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.
Miller planned to build an F-14 simulator close to his home, court records showed.
Sutton never received any payments and was uninvolved with the bribery conspiracy, Sutton's attorney, Andrew A. Protogyrou, said
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