A 27-year-old National Guard soldier pleaded guilty on June 11 to second-degree murder after fatally shooting a U.S. Army sergeant he found in bed with his ex-girlfriend at an apartment complex on a military base in Augusta, Georgia. Natravien R. Landry admitted he shot Sgt. Andre S. Stewart Jr. once in the chest, while two children were inside the home.
The killing happened on the morning of December 14, 2024, at what was then Fort Eisenhower, now Fort Gordon. Federal prosecutors said Landry faces a minimum of ten years and up to life in federal prison. His sentencing date has not yet been set.
The case is a grim reminder of what happens when personal rage meets a loaded weapon on a U.S. military installation, a place where discipline and order are supposed to be the baseline. Instead, a soldier is dead, a 5-year-old boy lost his father, and a man who swore an oath to defend his country now awaits sentencing for murder.
A probable cause arrest affidavit laid out the sequence. Landry was at drill duty earlier that morning. He left during a break and went to his ex-girlfriend's home on the base. The woman, also the mother of Landry's child, was dating Stewart at the time, the New York Post reported.
A witness told authorities that Landry noticed a black truck parked in front of the apartment and asked who owned the vehicle. Then he barged inside.
Federal prosecutors said Landry went upstairs to a bedroom, where he found Stewart. The woman told investigators she and Stewart had been sleeping when she heard a commotion. Landry was aware Stewart was unarmed. He shot him once in the chest.
Stewart was later pronounced dead.
Two children were present in the apartment at the time of the shooting. Stewart's sister later wrote that her brother had been "viciously murdered" and said Stewart left behind a 5-year-old son, one of the children who was there that morning.
Landry fled the apartment and the military base after pulling the trigger. He did not turn himself in. He did not call for help. He ran.
The Meriwether County Sheriff's Office caught up with him during a traffic stop on Interstate 85. During the stop, Landry threw the gun out of his vehicle window. Deputies later recovered it. Testing confirmed the recovered handgun was the weapon used in the shooting.
In a Mirandized interview, Landry admitted to the killing. The woman who witnessed the aftermath told investigators that Landry was jealous of Stewart, a motive as old as time, and one that does nothing to justify the act.
When public officials and military members face consequences for their actions, it matters, whether the wrongdoing happens in a courtroom or on a military base.
On June 11, Landry pleaded guilty to two federal charges: second-degree murder and use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. The plea spares the government the cost and burden of a trial, but it also means the public record will lack the full adversarial airing that a jury proceeding would have provided.
The sentencing range is stark. Federal prosecutors said Landry faces a minimum of ten years behind bars. The ceiling is life.
No sentencing date has been announced. The court that handled the plea was not identified in available filings.
The case fits a broader pattern in which misconduct by people in positions of public trust, military or civilian, demands accountability. That principle holds whether the wrongdoing involves disqualifying personal conduct or a lethal act of jealousy on a federal installation.
Sgt. Andre S. Stewart Jr. served in the U.S. Army. His sister described the shooting as a vicious murder. She said Stewart's 5-year-old son was one of the two children in the apartment when Landry opened fire.
That detail alone should define the gravity of this case. A kindergarten-age boy was in the home when a man walked in and shot his father in the chest. Whatever domestic grievance Landry carried through that door, a child now carries the weight of it for the rest of his life.
Stewart's sister did not elaborate further in public statements included in the record. No official statements from the Army or the National Guard regarding the case were available.
The shooting took place on a federal military installation. That fact moved the case into federal jurisdiction and brought federal charges, charges that carry stiffer mandatory minimums than many state-level equivalents.
Fort Eisenhower, since renamed Fort Gordon, is a major Army installation in Augusta, Georgia. It is home to the Army Cyber Center of Excellence and thousands of active-duty soldiers, reservists, and their families. A fatal shooting inside its gates raises obvious questions about base security, access protocols, and whether Landry should have been able to enter the residential area while armed and on a break from drill.
Those questions remain unanswered. The available record does not address how Landry accessed the apartment complex or whether any security checkpoint was involved.
In an era when Americans are watching how institutions handle serious wrongdoing, from confessions of misconduct in high places to fraud allegations that force officials from office, the standard should be simple: no one is above the law, and no uniform exempts anyone from it.
Landry's guilty plea locks in the conviction. The only remaining question is how long he will spend in federal prison. The minimum is a decade. The maximum is the rest of his natural life.
Federal sentencing guidelines will likely weigh the premeditated nature of the act, Landry left drill, drove to the apartment, entered uninvited, and shot an unarmed man, against whatever mitigating factors the defense presents. The presence of children, the flight from the scene, and the attempt to discard the weapon will all be on the table.
The public has grown accustomed to watching powerful people face consequences only after enormous pressure. But accountability should not require headlines to function. It should be automatic, built into the system, and applied equally, whether the person involved is a governor or a guardsman.
Sgt. Stewart is dead. His son will grow up without him. Landry admitted what he did. Now the system owes that boy, and the public, a sentence that fits the crime.
