Ex-Carson soldier pleads guilty in death of fellow vet

A former Fort Carson soldier and Iraq war veteran has admitted his involvement in the December shooting death of a fellow veteran.

Kenneth Lee Eastridge, 24, pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge of accessory to murder in the homicide of Kevin Shields, also 24.

Shields was shot in the head and his body was found Dec. 1 on a sidewalk in the 200 block of 16th Street.

Prosecutors and Eastridge's public defenders mapped out a plea agreement under which Eastridge will be sentenced to 10 years in prison and agree to testify against codefendants Bruce Bastien Jr., 22, and Louis Bressler, 25.

Bastien told Colorado Springs police Bressler was the one who pulled the trigger, according to an arrest affidavit. Shields was killed because he knew too much about supposed robbery plans the former solider had made, Bastien told police.

Bastien was scheduled to enter a plea agreement last week, but he backed out of the deal at the last moment, according to his court-appointed attorney Richard Bednarski.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Theresa Cisneros accepted Eastridge's plea Friday, according to court documents, and advised him he would not be able to appeal the sentence, ask for a sentence reduction or ask for boot camp.

Prosecutors agreed to drop all other charges against Eastridge, including a first-degree murder charge, a misdemeanor alleging he pointed a gun at his girlfriend's head and a felony assault charge in the Oct. 27 stabbing of a Colorado Springs woman who was hit with a car on south Chelton Road and robbed of her backpack.

The first judge on Eastridge's case, 4th Judicial District Judge David Gilbert, had previously said the evidence against Eastridge was "somewhat more tenuous" than that against Bressler and Bastien. He set Eastridge's bond at $350,000, as opposed to the no-bond hold he placed on the co-defendants.

Eastridge served two tours in Iraq before being discharged from the Army for "other than honorable" reasons after he returned from his second deployment in October. He earned a Purple Heart after suffering a head injury in his first tour, according to his attorney Deputy Public Defender Sheilagh McAteer.

Bastien, Bressler, Eastridge and Shields all served together in Iraq with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. All were in the same platoon of C Company, 2nd Battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment. Bressler and Bastien, who were also discharged from the Army, returned from Iraq last summer.

Bastien and Bressler are also charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 4 robbery and shooting death of Pfc. Robert James. Bastien is scheduled to stand trial in the Shields homicide July 28, though his courtappointed attorneys have asked for a delay. Bressler is scheduled to stand trial in Shields' death Aug. 11.

Eastridge, who was ordered to talk to investigators within two weeks, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 25.

He is being held without bond at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center.