Tennessee man who murdered wife on luxury honeymoon ripped by judge at sentencing
Bradley Dawson, a 41-year-old IT specialist, was arrested on July 10, 2022, after police in the Pacific island nation found Christe Chen Dawson, a 36-year-old pharmacist originally from Denver, dead in their private cabana: Bure 15. They had married five months earlier and arrived in Fiji two days before hotel staff found her dead.
After a night of partying on the beach, a drunken argument ended with Dawson beating her to death in a bathroom and fleeing the island on a stolen kayak, according to trial testimony.
American Woman Killed On Fiji Honeymoon Had 'Horrific' Injuries That Were No Accident: Lawyer
"What should have been a truly joyous and memorable vacation was turned into a nightmare for the deceased and her family, causing much pain and sorrow to them," Judge Riyaz Hamza wrote in his sentencing decision.
Robert Dawson, Accused Of Killing Wife On Fiji Honeymoon, Ordered Held With No Bail
Read On The Fox News App
The life sentence is mandatory. Dawson will be eligible for parole, also known as pardon in Fiji, after 18 years.
"No mother should have to know this is how her daughter's life ended, and by the hands of the very person who took a vow to love, honor and cherish her," Chen's mother, Xiao Wei Liu, told Dawson in a victim's impact statement. "I can only hope that the rest of your life is filled with misery, loneliness and despair."
Chen's father, Tao Chen, said his daughter was "the center" of his family and their lives.
"She was my only child, my little girl, and my reason for living," he said. "Each day since her death has been a struggle to find meaning in a life that now feels empty."
Fiji Honeymoon Murder: American Bradley Dawson 'Not In Good Health,' Asks For Bail In Wife's Brutal Murder
Dawson was convicted after an eight-day bench trial before the Lautoka High Court last year.
Hotel workers testified that Chen seemed upset at the resort's floating bar on the evening of July 8 and into the following morning. The couple had been drinking and briefly danced with staff members before an argument broke out.
A pair of security guards reported that the couple left together and headed toward Bure 15. They both saw Dawson alone on the beach around 2 a.m.
SIGN UP TO GET True Crime Newsletter
The following morning, hotel staff saw a "Do not disturb" sign on the couple's cabin. After the couple missed breakfast and lunch, a manager asked a housekeeper to check on them.
Hotel worker Tomasi Mawi found Chen in the blood-spattered bathroom, propped up against the toilet and not moving. She was covered in blood and broken glass, with one arm "caught" in the water tank. Dr. Carolyn Murti, the local medical officer, pronounced Chen dead at the scene.
An autopsy conducted later by Dr. Avikali Mate described the extent of her injuries in grisly detail: she had severe swelling around both eyes and across her mouth; her right arm was covered in bruises and cuts; and she had a "large gaping" wound on the back above several smaller incisions.
Her cause of death was recorded as homicide by traumatic brain injury.
GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE True Crime Hub
Mark Andrew Breaskey, an Australian businessman who was staying with his family in the cottage adjacent to Dawson's, testified that he heard banging and a scream coming from Bure 15 around 12:40 a.m. on July 9, about 15 minutes after he saw Dawson and Chen returning from the beach. Then there was silence.
Dawson showed up on a neighboring island the following day, wearing wet clothes and asking locals to call police, according to trial testimony. He was covered in bruises and cuts. A witness who ran into him there testified that Dawson told him he "had a fight."
Dawson told police he argued with Chen about his ex-wife at dinner before they went back to the cottage drunk.
"We then went to bed, and I turned to her to hug her and cuddle – when she got angry and started to say that I hurt her, and she does not know whether she wanted to be with me," he said, according to a transcript of his police interview. "Our argument moved towards where the toilet was, and that was when Christe pushed me, and that was when I lost it."
Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X
He told them the toilet and window both broke in the scuffle and that he left and came back. She hadn't moved, so he grabbed a kayak and paddled off into the night.
When police asked if he would show them where the fight happened, he said he didn't want to go back and face the other guests.
Although Dawson pleaded not guilty, he declined to testify in his own defense and called no witnesses to the stand. Instead, the defense argued that Chen fell down while drunk and inflicted her own fatal injuries.
"This Court cannot accept this version of the accused," Hamza said at the end of the trial. The injuries were too extreme, and a reasonable person would have tried to help rather than left her body propped up against the toilet.
Dawson has 30 days to appeal.
The Turtle Island Resort is on a 500-acre private island off the Fiji mainland and is known for idyllic reefs, a pristine beach and as the backdrop for the 1980 movie "Blue Lagoon" starring Brooke Shields.Original article source: Tennessee man who murdered wife on luxury honeymoon ripped by judge at sentencing
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
44 minutes ago
- New York Post
Missing Texas woman Kaura Taylor found living in lost ‘African' tribe in Scotland
A woman reported missing by her family in Texas has been found living amongst a lost 'African' tribe in the Scottish woodlands. The Kingdom of Kubala claim they have settled in a forest in Jedburgh, with the intention of reclaiming land that was stolen from their ancestors in the Highlands 400 years ago. The trio consists of group leader King Atehene, 36, who was previously an opera singer under the name Kofi Offeh, his wife, Queen Nandi, and their handmaiden Asnat. 7 Kaura Taylor was found living with an 'African' tribe in Scotland. Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS It has now emerged that Asnat, Lady Safi, is Kaura Taylor from Texas, who has been reported missing by her family in the US. 'To the UK authorities, obviously I am not missing,' she said in a video message from the camp. 'Leave me alone. I'm an adult, not a helpless child.' The group said on Tuesday that they 'don't recognize local laws' and have faced persecution from those who don't understand their ways. They have been served eviction notices and have even suffered an attack on their camp when their tents were set on fire. But instead of bowing to local law enforcement, they say they only recognize the laws of their God, named Yahowah. 7 The missing American woman gave an offering of Irn-Bru, a Scottish soda, and shortbread sticks to the so-called King Atehene. Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS 7 The tribe said they are reclaiming land that was stolen from their ancestors in the Highlands 400 years ago. Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS Its King even claimed to be a descendant of the Messiah. Their presence has baffled locals, although the tribe claim to live a simple life, bathing in a nearby stream, living in tents and connecting with nature. 'We live a very simple life of returning to innocence,' King Atehene said. 'We connect to nature. We connect to the trees around us. We get grounded every morning. We bathe in the springwater. We are living a simple life of relying daily on the creator for food, shelter and clothing. We live in a tent without walls, but we are not afraid of anyone, for we have the protection of the creator, Yahowah.' 7 Former opera singer Kofi Offeh claimed to be a descendent of the Messiah. Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS 7 The tribe set up camp in the Scottish woodlands. Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS He continued, 'Many people do not have the eyes to see and the ears to hear. They see things and they judge without understanding. This includes the government of Great Britain, who say that culture and religion is tolerant in Great Britain, but the Kingdom of Kubala has suffered trials and tribulations at the hands of authorities, who do not understand or tolerate. But the Kingdom of Kubala cannot be destroyed, for we are helped by the creator of the heavens and the earth, our God. Until then, no one will be able to destroy the Kingdom of Kubala.' They claim they are a lost tribe of Hebrews, with their King descended from David the Messiah, and say their ancestors were cast out when Elizabeth I deported native black Jacobites. The group said they live a simple life and aimed to fulfill a prophecy to establish their kingdom and bring other 'lost tribes' back into the fold. 7 The group has been served eviction notices but claimed that they 'don't recognize local laws.' Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS 'We follow the laws of the creator, everything belongs to the ones who made it,' King Atehene added. 'We do not believe that any authority owns the land. The earth belongs to the father. We do not know about any eviction. All we know is that we are here to stay and establish our authority and power, just like our ancestors did.' King Atehene described it as a 'journey of pilgrimage.' King Atehene claimed, 'the prophecy said, 'after 400 years, when my ancestors are destroyed from the land of Scotland, from the land of Great Britain, they will go into captivity and lose their identity.'But after 400 years, I will come and bring them back to the land of promise. I am following the ancestral call and the call of the gods. The calling from our creator to embark on this journey, is the most important thing in our life. It is a journey of hope – a pilgrimage.' His wife, Queen Nandi, 43, a mother of seven who was born Jean Gasho, shared a statement on social media. 7 The group's leader wore a crown of pine cones and feathers. Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS 'We are the Lost Tribes of Hebrews and have returned to claim Scotland as our homeland, a land stolen by Elizabeth the first 400 years ago when she deported all black people from Scotland and England, who were not Africans but natives of the land,' Queen Nandi wrote. 'Jacobites were black, from their ancestor Jacob, Yacobho, a black man. According to our Prophet Atehene, Jerusalem is in Scotland, and that he is the seed and offspring of David, the Messiah. The old world is going, the Second Exodus has begun, only those who live off grid, in Tabernacles will be saved, as we enter the Millennium Kingdom of Kubala, and the world is left behind.' Scottish Borders Council said it had been 'working with Police Scotland' to manage the ongoing situation. 'This has included the provision of advice and information about housing options and other support services,' a spokesperson said.
Buzz Feed
44 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
17 FBI Government Secrets From Former Workers
As an avid Criminal Minds-watcher, I've always wondered what it was actually like to work as an FBI agent. A while back, Reddit user mr_squirell asked, "FBI/CIA agents of Reddit, what's something that you can tell us without killing us?" Here's what they said: "I worked with a woman who was a former NSA. We would always beg her to tell us stuff, but she never did. The one thing she did say, though, was that during training, they show them a video of a bunch of things they've found out about and stopped. She said she hardly slept for two weeks after watching that." "My dad worked for GCHQ in the '80s doing voice recognition, and he can't say anything more for another decade. The technology used that lets Siri and Alexa recognize you today was also being used in the '80s... Just a bit slower..." "I was an analyst, not an agent/officer. 85% of all classified material is classified because of how it was collected, not because it is juicy/useful. Yes, your boss and co-workers said that stuff about you." "We are all told never to use sites like Reddit. Social media in general is pretty much a no-go." "An ex-Company man once told me that the movie Get Smart was more accurate than James Bond." "I talked with some CIA recruiters towards the end of college and almost applied earnestly after a large group Q&A and then a much smaller one. The thing that stuck out to me was that the guys said most CIA agents are out of shape and have limited combat training with guns or hand-to-hand. They made it clear that it's the military that uses force. If confronted, they were trained to immediately surrender or to drop their bags and run if possible." "If you go through the FBI interview process, it takes a while. Chances are, you're going to have to spend some time working on crimes against children, which is really tough, and most people don't want to do it." "My dad worked for the government, and he told me that any time he had a meaningful interaction with someone who wasn't American (i.e. going over to my friend's house for Lunar New Year or going on vacation to Canada), he had to report it all, and if he saw anything suspicious." "I worked with the Australian Federal police with the spider squad doing 'computer stuff' for them in regards to pedophiles and finding trafficking victims. It was the most heartbreaking work, but when you got the pedophiles, the office looked like NASA after a Mars landing." "My spouse is an FBI agent. One of the things they had to do at the FBI Academy was go to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC. The lesson was what can happen if you blindly follow orders without ever questioning the morality/intent behind them. I found that pretty compelling, and I was glad to hear that it's part of their training." "Not an FBI or CIA officer, but my sister is a district attorney, and over the years, she has prosecuted a number of animal-cruelty cases. This led to her having an ongoing partnership with the FBI for the last several years. It turns out the FBI started tracking animal abuse cases about 10-15 years ago due to the incredibly high correlation between abusing animals when you're young and becoming a serial violent offender as an adult." "I have a relative who retired from the NSA a few years ago. She has talked about a few things in generalities, nothing specific. Among them: Alcoholism in general is rife in the agency. When you cannot speak to anyone outside the agency about your work, it becomes nearly impossible to confide in anyone close to you. Even if you have close work friends or family, you have to be careful what you say because not everyone is read into every program. Two people can sit next to each other in the same office, working on the same subject for months, and never talk about it with each other, even though they're close friends outside the agency. So people turn to the bottle. Her husband worked for a different government agency and also had a Top Secret-SCI clearance, but she couldn't talk about her work with him (nor could he with her, but his didn't involve the intelligence community)." "Want to work for them? Prepare to do a fair amount of paper work. The form will ask for each of your employer's contact information, contact information of friends, your history of addresses, etc. They will then send an agent to interview a number of these people. Next, you have to take a psychological exam and be interviewed by a psychologist. Finally, you'll have one last interview with a polygraph and a professional lie detector." "The agency employs psychiatrists who are cleared to be read into almost any program. Going to them, though, is often seen as a mark of shame among other agency employees, so they are not used nearly as often as they should be." "Properly secret programs and operations are never named in any way that indicates what they are actually about. They're generally just two words chosen at random and that would rarely come up in normal conversation, stuff like 'Cracked Gorilla' (which I just made up off the top of my head)." "I applied to be an accountant at the FBI out of college. On the first or second page of the application, it asks if you have ever done any illegal drug. Not wanting to lie, I said yes, and it immediately ended the application process. It's shocking to me that there are so many FBI agents, and absolutely none of them have ever smoked weed." And finally, "Anyone who is a US citizen can apply to join the CIA. It isn't that hard. If you have any kind of degree in computer science, statistics, engineering, or accounting, and don't have anything that would mess up your getting a clearance, getting a job would be relatively easy there. Working at the CIA is far more boring than you would think." So, to all the former FBI and CIA workers out there. What are some other secrets you can share about the job? Let us know in the comments below. Or, if you prefer to remain anonymous, share your submission in the form below.
Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
Venezuela Readies Militia as Trump Involves Military in Fight Against Drugs
The U.S. and Venezuela appear to be heading towards a standoff with neither country indicating a willingness to back down. The Venezuelan government on Monday mobilized more than four million militia troops seemingly in response to reports of U.S. naval movements in the region. 'We defend our seas, our skies, and our lands. We liberated them. We guard and patrol them. No empire will touch the sacred soil of Venezuela, nor should it touch the sacred soil of South America,' Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said in a televised address Monday. Three U.S. Navy missile destroyers have been deployed to the waters off Venezuela, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday. 'President Trump has been very clear and consistent. He's prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. Here's what to know about the state-of-play between the U.S. and Venezuela. Trump and Maduro have had longstanding hostilities Washington and Caracas broke off formal bilateral diplomatic relations in 2019 during Trump's first term, after Trump backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó in the Latin American country's presidential election. The U.S. government has not recognized Maduro's last two electoral victories, and the Trump Administration has repeatedly called Maduro's presidency illegitimate, including as recently as Tuesday. 'I know it very well, and Venezuela is right now being run by a dictator,' Trump said in August last year, as he blamed the country for the flow of criminals and drugs into the U.S. and campaigned to crack down on it. Democratic former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden also opposed the Maduro government, which has suggested jailing its opposition and has deported American journalists. During Trump's first term, the U.S. imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela in 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2020, Maduro was indicted in a New York federal court on charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and other charges. And the tensions between Trump and the Venezuelan leader have only escalated during Trump's second term. Earlier this month, the Trump Administration doubled the reward to $50 million for information leading to Maduro's arrest. The Administration also accused Maduro of being 'one of the world's largest drug traffickers' and the head of the so-called Cartel of the Suns, allegations that the Venezuelan government has rejected. The U.S. also alleged links between Maduro and Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel, which Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier this month her government has no evidence of. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the U.S. government had seized up to $700 million of assets with alleged links to Maduro on Aug. 13, including luxury goods, bank accounts, and private jets. Trump has pushed to use the U.S. military to scuttle cartels. In February, he designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, as well as six groups in Mexico and MS-13 in El Salvador, as foreign terrorist organizations. The President signed a secret directive to the Pentagon to use military force against these cartels, sources told the New York Times earlier this month. The Administration has sought to counter the inflow of drugs, especially fentanyl, through tariffs, such as imposing tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico, citing the countries' 'failure' to stop fentanyl smuggling into the U.S. And Trump issued penalty tariffs on countries that buy oil from Venezuela in March, highlighting the threat of Tren de Aragua to the U.S. Trump has also targeted Venezuelans on immigration issues, revoking the protected status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S. and deporting 238 Venezuelans in March to an El Salvadoran prison as part of a mass deportation campaign claiming to target alleged gang members. U.S. courts have ordered the return of several of those who were wrongfully deported, while many other deportees reject the allegations against them. Trump sends missile destroyers to Venezuelan waters On Monday, the U.S. government ordered three U.S. Navy missile destroyers—USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and USS Sampson—and around 4,000 military personnel to the edge of Venezuela's territorial waters, according to Reuters. The Administration confirmed to CNN last week that it had ordered naval movements as part of an effort to stymie drug trafficking. The Trump Administration is also committing additional military assets in the broader region within international airspace and waters, including several P-8 spy planes, warships, and an attack submarine, an official told Reuters. Venezuela mobilizes millions of militia fighters 'This week, I will activate a special plan with more than 4.5 million militiamen to ensure coverage of the entire national territory—militias that are prepared, activated and armed,' Maduro said Monday. The Venezuelan Militia was created in 2005 by the late President Hugo Chávez and formally established in 2010. Maduro's plan will involve mobilizing peasant and worker militias 'in all factories and workplaces in the country' and providing 'missiles and rifles for the working class, to defend our homeland,' the Venezuelan President said Monday. Maduro called U.S. threats 'rotten rehashes' and 'extravagant, bizarre, and outlandish.' The Venezuelan government also temporarily banned the purchase, sale, and operation of drones in Venezuelan airspace on Tuesday. A drone laden with explosives detonated near Maduro in 2018 in an apparent assassination attempt, which resulted in the arrest warrants for more than two dozen people, including one who later died under mysterious circumstances, and the convictions of 17 people, including opposition leader Juan Requesens. 'Washington's accusing Venezuela of drug trafficking reveals its lack of credibility and the failure of its policies in the region,' Venezuela's foreign ministry said in a Tuesday statement. 'While Washington threatens, Venezuela advances firmly in peace and sovereignty, demonstrating that true effectiveness against crime is achieved by respecting the independence of the people. Every aggressive declaration confirms the inability of imperialism to subdue a free and sovereign people.'
