November 17, 2004
By Nicole Gaudiano
Times staff writer

The high-pitched screams on the recording of Senior Airman Andy Schliepsiek’s call to the 911 center sounded desperate. “Oh my God,” he could be heard saying, as his wife, Jamie, shrieked twice in the background.
His last words before the line went dead: “Please don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”

Listening to the muffled tape on Tuesday in a Macon, Ga., courtroom, 911 dispatcher Rita Coleman picked out the phrases that were clear to her.

She said she heard someone say “Andrew” — the first name of Senior Airman Andrew Witt, who is charged with murdering the Schliepsieks on July 5 in their home at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. Coleman said she could hear “I’ve been stabbed.” But she never heard an address.

As family members hearing the call for the first time wept in the audience, the tape played on, with Coleman redialing the phone number three times only to get a cheerful message. “Hey, this is Andy. I can’t get to the phone …”

Since cell phone calls can only be traced to their tower, “I had nothing to go on” to find them, Coleman testified.

The Schliepsieks’ bodies were found about 45 minutes to an hour later, him lying face up in the living room and her slumped behind her bedroom door in a pool of blood.

The 911 tape was part of an intensely emotional conclusion to an Article 32 hearing for Witt, who is also charged with the attempted murder of the Schliepsieks’ friend, Senior Airman Jason King.

Witnesses said the stabbings followed exchanges between Witt and the two men over Witt’s unsuccessful attempt to kiss Jamie the previous night. According to testimony, Witt led investigators to the knife he used and confessed to the murders, stating he “let go” while committing them.

The fathers of the victims were among the family members who testified Tuesday, both urging the investigating officer to recommend the case for a general court-martial as a capital one, meaning Witt would face a possible death penalty.

“If the Air Force allows this kind of behavior to go on, there’s no justice,” said Jamie’s father, James A. Bielenberg. “There’s no justice if this person is allowed to live. What more heinous thing can you do to a person?”

Citing the crime scene photos he first saw during Monday’s hearing, Bielenberg beat his hand on the witness box as he thought about what had been done to “this beautiful girl.”

He described a recurring nightmare in which he could see his daughter hiding behind the bedroom door where she was found, listening to the clomping of Witt’s BDU boots as he approached her.

Calling Witt a “monster” and an “animal” during his testimony, Bielenberg said he dreams about it being him behind the bedroom door when Witt arrives.

“Judgement Day gets solved real fast,” he said.

Witt buried his face in his hand throughout Bielenberg’s testimony; a man seated behind him massaged his shoulders after it ended. After a short break, Witt’s attorney, Frank Spinner, said his client would not return to the hearing, whispering to the investigating officer that Witt was “in bad shape” before publicly telling the court that Witt was waiving his presence.

Witt also left during the playing of the 911 tape and the display of the crime scene photos on Monday.

The defense presented no evidence during the two-day hearing, and Witt’s family members declined through the attorney to comment.

“My client is honestly, truly remorseful for what happened,” Spinner said after the hearing. “These were his friends. He is having to pay the consequences for what he did that night.”

The investigating officer, Col. Mary Boone, chief military judge, U.S. Air Force Central Circuit, said her recommendations would be ready in a few days. Her report will go next to the 78th Air Base Wing Commander, Col. Greg Patterson, and will be used to determine whether the case will go to court-martial.

Should it be referred as a capital case, it would be among only a handful of Air Force death penalty cases in the past 15 years, according to the prosecutor, Maj. Vance Spath, chief circuit trial counsel of the Eastern Judicial Circuit.

The last case he could recall resulting in a death sentence happened in the early 1990s, though the sentence was changed on appeal to life.

Wow, I think he should get the death penalty. I personally believe in "an eye for an eye." He can't justify what he did. That's pathetic!

My thoughts go out the the family members...