Assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 7 at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, as a motor vehicle operator, Lance Cpl. Teavaughnie T. Tomlinson has been charged with multiple counts of domestic abuse, including threatening to chop up his wife with a machete. Composite by Coffee or Die.
A Marine who’s accused of strangling his wife and threatening to chop her up with a machete remains in the brig.
Assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 7 at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, as a motor vehicle operator, Lance Cpl. Teavaughnie T. Tomlinson has been charged with two counts of domestic violence by battery; two specifications of assault by strangulation and suffocation; communicating a threat; stealing his wife’s iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods; kicking in a door in military housing; and willfully disobeying an order to stay away from his wife.
Coffee or Die doesn’t identify alleged victims of domestic abuse. Tomlinson, 22, is incarcerated on pretrial confinement inside the Camp Pendleton brig.
According to his charge sheets, Tomlinson attacked her during a string of incidents that began on Feb. 12 and continued until April 26, 2022, both in Twentynine Palms and at an unspecified location in Texas.
Investigators say Tomlinson threw something at his wife’s face and tried to choke her on Feb. 12, 2022, in Texas. Then on April 26, 2022, in Twentynine Palms, he allegedly grabbed her, tossed her down, and started strangling and suffocating her.
Stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, Combat Logistics Battalion 7 provides direct combat logistics to the 7th Marine Regiment. US Marine Corps photo.
During one incident, he brandished a machete and shouted, “Try anything. I have this,” according to his charge sheets.
“If you ever mention my mother again, I’ll kill you,” he allegedly said during an episode.
“I’ll bash your face into the fucking wall,” he also reportedly told her during another clash, adding, “I’ll fucking kill you.”
The court-martial records allege that a superior commissioned officer told Tomlinson to remain at least 100 feet away from the lance corporal’s wife and her home, but the young Marine violated the order.
A similar restraining order was issued by San Bernardino County’s Superior Court on June 28, 2022, according to legal filings uncovered by Coffee or Die. It remains in effect until mid-2025 and also bars the Marine from possessing firearms, harassing his wife online, or trying to obtain her residential address.
Stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, Combat Logistics Battalion 7 provides direct combat logistics to the 7th Marine Regiment. US Marine Corps photo.
Brig. Gen. Phillip N. Frietze, the commander of 1st Marine Logistics Group, ordered him to a general court-martial on Oct. 11, 2022.
“As with any matter referred to a court-martial for adjudication, charges are merely allegations and service members are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty,” wrote Capt. Charles “Chuck” Palmer, the spokesperson for 1st Marine Logistics Group, in an email to Coffee or Die.
Tomlinson’s military criminal defense attorneys at Camp Pendleton did not return messages from Coffee or Die. According to his military records, Tomlinson enlisted on Sept. 9, 2019, and has received the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, and a Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation Medal.
Marine officials at first blocked release of Tomlinson’s charge sheets to Coffee or Die, but the news outlet won a string of appellate decisions that ordered the Corps to fork over the legal filings.
Tomlinson’s trial is slated to start on May 22 and will be open to the public.
Stationed at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, Combat Logistics Battalion 7 provides direct combat logistics to the 7th Marine Regiment. US Marine Corps photo.
It’ll unfold amid ongoing efforts by the Marines and the other armed forces to curb domestic abuse worldwide.
In September, the Pentagon’s Family Advocacy Program published its annual report on abuse and neglect for all the services. Investigators recorded 6,629 incidents of spousal abuse in the armed forces during fiscal year 2021, which averages out to roughly 8.5 victims for every 1,000 military couples.
That figure marked a 1.2% dip from 2020’s spousal abuse rate, and the trendline over the past decade has pointed downward, too.
In most cases, the abused spouse is a fellow service member. Seven out of every 10 victims are wives, not husbands. The typical abuser is a young man, serving in the enlisted pay grades of E-3 to E-6, and the abuse he dishes out is usually physical, such as punching or strangling.
Abusers killed five spouses in 2021 across the military, according to the report.
Unlike with child abuse and neglect research, there’s no tracking system that compares spousal violence in the military to rates in the civilian world, the Pentagon states.
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Carl Prine is a former senior editor at Coffee or Die Magazine. He has worked at Navy Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He served in the Marine Corps and the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. His awards include the Joseph Galloway Award for Distinguished Reporting on the military, a first prize from Investigative Reporters & Editors, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
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