Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect Lance Cpl. Austin Schwenk’s military awards.
“He was born at the same hospital he was pronounced dead.”
Robert Schwenk Jr., remembering his son, reflected on his birth and death, both of which occurred at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Lance Cpl. Austin Brian Schwenk was brought into the world at the North Carolina base when his father served there during the early 2000s. Nineteen years later, his life ended there, too — at the hands of a fellow Marine.
That Marine, Cpl. Jesse Thomas Bopp, was sentenced under a plea agreement Tuesday to eight years in confinement, according to a spokesperson for the 2nd Marine Division. He pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and in addition to confinement, Bopp will receive a dishonorable discharge and a reduction in rank to private.
Following the sentencing, Robert Schwenk Jr. shared his reaction with Military Times via text.
“Not happy at all,” he wrote.
Kassandra Christison, Austin Schwenk’s mother, said she was still in shock at the verdict.
“Austin only had nineteen years on this earth, and he shouldn’t get less than that,” Christison said of Bopp’s sentence.
A promising future ended short
Austin Schwenk grew up idolizing his father. He wanted to be just like him, Robert Schwenk Jr. recalled, and he was well on his way.
The younger Schwenk enlisted in the Marine Corps in January 2019 and became an electro-optical ordnance repairer with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. He had a promising future, and his awards included the National Defense Service Medal.
“That’s all he ever wanted to be his entire life, was a Marine,” Robert Schwenk Jr. said.
But on Oct. 18, 2023, that dream was cut short.
That evening, Bopp, who worked in the armory with Austin Schwenk and was assigned to the same battalion, entered Schwenk’s room at the Wallace Creek barracks. Bopp had a firearm, and he had been drinking, according to court documents filed by Bopp’s attorney and shared with Military Times by Robert Schwenk Jr.
Bopp held the gun to his own head, in what the documents said was a suicidal joke. Then, he pointed the gun toward Austin Schwenk, pulled the trigger and killed him.
Bopp screamed and fled the room. He was arrested at 10:15 p.m. the same night, court documents say. Bopp was charged with murder and involuntary manslaughter, as well as violation of a lawful general order for wrongfully possessing and firing a weapon at Camp Lejeune, according to his charge sheet.
During the following year-plus of legal proceedings, Bopp’s defense attorney, Eric Kopka, fought for a plea agreement that omitted the murder charge. Kopka argued the killing was not intentional — one of the qualifiers for murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ.
“It is clear that based on this account of what happened, the reaction of Cpl. Bopp, the alcohol that was presumed to have been consumed prior to the handling of the firearm … and the fact that there is nothing to support that this was an intentional act … involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence is the more appropriate charge,” a memorandum from Kopka reads.
Kopka’s memorandum, which outlined the terms of a proposed plea agreement in August 2024, listed three to eight years of confinement as the desired punishment.
Frustrated by the justice system
Austin Schwenk’s parents wanted the murder charge to stick, and they hoped Bopp would face a general court-martial trial. Even if the killing was unintentional, Robert Schwenk Jr. argued, Bopp’s actions were “inherently dangerous” — another description the UCMJ uses to define murder.
Military Times reached out to Kopka on behalf of his client, but he did not immediately return a request for comment.
“There’s no excuse, especially for a Marine who worked in the armory and knew gun safety rules,” Schwenk said. “The way I view it as a father — my son was executed.”
The convening authority in the case, Gen. David L. Odom, opted for the plea agreement, Schwenk said. That decision, as well as Schwenk’s disappointment with his victims’ legal counsel, has motivated him to fight for UCMJ reforms.
“I feel quite frustrated and let down,” Schwenk told Military Times. “I wanted to see, at a minimum, 15 years. I’d like my daughter to be graduated out of high school before this man is set free. I mean, that was her brother. That was someone she absolutely loved and adored, and he absolutely loved and adored her.”
Since his son’s death, Schwenk has suffered from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and bouts of grief. He’s found it difficult to continue the things that previously brought him joy, and he’s struggled to let go of the future he envisioned for his son.
“We were looking forward to the day where I got to be able to pin my corporal chevrons on him,” Schwenk said. “Instead, I had my cousin read a promotion script as I pinned my chevrons on my son and his casket before he was cremated.”
Christison feels the immense loss of a life her son never got to live. He was just getting started, she said, and he had many plans. For instance, Austin Schwenk was so excited for an upcoming deployment to Okinawa, Japan, that he was learning Japanese, she said.
“He was such a compassionate and caring individual,” Christison said. “He knew what he needed to be for everybody he cared about. I don’t know if he even knows how much he mattered to so many people.”
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
