Cannon airman guilty of killing

Found guilty of unpremeditated murder

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — An airman from Cannon Air Force Base has been found guilty by a military judge of unpremeditated murder in the death of a Sheppard Air Force Base fuels investigator he apparently dated.

Staff Sgt. Jason P. Arindain was found innocent on charges of felony murder, rape and forcible sodomy.

The verdicts were delivered on Saturday.

Staff Sgt. Shelby Dawn Orelup, 22, of Billings, Mont., was found dead in a ditch near the base in Wichita Falls on Feb. 28, 2003. She was beaten, sodomized and raped before she was strangled, according to an autopsy report.

Orelup, a 1999 graduate of Billings Senior High, dated Arindain but broke off the relationship because she felt he was controlling, her mother Shirley Orelup has said. Two weeks before her death, Shelby Orelup asked Arindain if he would take care of her daughter in New Mexico, and Arindain returned to Wichita Falls with the child on Feb. 27, Shirley Orelup has said.

Attorneys made their closing arguments in the general court martial at Sheppard Air Force Base on Saturday.

Sentencing is set for a later date. A Sheppard Air Force Base spokesman said the maximum sentence for unpremeditated murder is life in prison.