Former Navy sailor from Jefferson Parish charged with sex crime

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - A Jefferson Parish man and former Navy sailor was indicted on two felony counts of sexual abuse Thursday (June 13), stemming from a 2004 attack while he was deployed in Japan, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the indictment, Travis Lamont Murray attacked the victim two times while stationed in Yokosuka City on May 25 and May 26, 2004. In both incidents, Murray, now 36, grabbed the woman, pushed her and choked her and “threatened to put her to sleep," before forcing her to engage in sexual acts with him. The indictment states the victim feared for her life.

Murray was discharged from the Navy in May of 2006, according to the indictment.

Authorities were alerted to Murray after he submitted a DNA sample to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office during an unrelated investigation in 2018, which matched DNA collected during the initial investigation.

Murray appeared in court Tuesday and was assigned a public defender and he pleaded not guilty to both charges the following day, online court records show.