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Former Marine Held in Fairfax Homocide Investigation

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 10, 2008; Page B04

An Internet security consultant was charged with murder yesterday in the shooting death of an acquaintance during an early morning argument in the Arlington County home he was renting, police said.

Willie Donaldson, 35, was charged in the shooting of Loudoun County resident Matthew Hicks, 32. Police said they arrived about 4 a.m. Monday at the house, in the 2100 block of South Arlington Ridge Road, after Donaldson called and said he had shot a visitor. They found Hicks with multiple gunshot wounds.

Detective Crystal Nosal, an Arlington police spokeswoman, said the killing did not appear to be premeditated and that Donaldson had told authorities it was self-defense and that he was "in fear for his life.' She said the two appeared to have been casual acquaintances. A photo of Donaldson released by police showed that he had a black eye and dried blood on his chin.

"It could have been something where he was being assaulted and felt it necessary to shoot the guy, or they could have been involved in a mutual combatant tussle and he took it too far,' Nosal said. "We're not completely sure, and I think that's the mystery.'

An attorney for Donaldson, who is being held without bond at the Arlington County Detention Center, did not return telephone calls late yesterday. Donaldson is scheduled for a Jan. 23 preliminary hearing in Arlington County General District Court, prosecutors said.

Police said they think that Hicks was a former U.S. Navy SEAL but released little other information about him, and his family members could not be located.

Donaldson's former wife said he is a Texas native who joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1992 and served in Japan and at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She said he moved to the Washington area in the mid-1990s to work at Marine Corps headquarters and run the Marine Corps Web site. After being honorably discharged, she said, he established a consulting business called Hard Corps, which provides Internet security services.

The business's Web site, which lists Donaldson as president, said it "specializes in a full range of local area network, data portals, web services and onsite tech support" for "military, franchises and small-to-medium businesses and associations.'

Donaldson's former wife, who did not want her name used because of the nature of the charges, said that Donaldson was an "expert rifleman" in the Marine Corps and that during their marriage he frequently practiced shooting a Glock .40-caliber handgun he owned at an area shooting range. Police would not say what type of weapon was used in Monday's shooting.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

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