A chief petty officer accused of stealing two Garmin smart watches from the Navy Exchange on Naval Air Station Jacksonville is slated for a Friday court-martial trial.
Aviation Structural Mechanic Chief Andrea Ariano is accused of two counts of larceny, according to charge sheets and information provided by Naval Air Force Atlantic spokesperson Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg.
Ariano, whose name is redacted on the charge sheets, is accused of taking a Garmin D2 Bravo watch sometime around Dec. 13, 2018. Then, around Oct. 30, 2019, Ariano allegedly returned and stole a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro watch, according to charge sheets.
Ariano’s Navy defense counsel, Lt. Cmdr. Tracy High, declined comment but Navy Times was informed that her client’s plea agreement will reduce him in rank to petty officer first class and impose a fine between $1,500 and $3,000.
Lt. Patrick Rigney, a Navy prosecutor assigned to the case, declined to comment.
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The Garmin D2 Bravo is a wrist-sized flight system, stocked with weather and airport data, as well as a step and heart-rate monitor and retails for more than $600 on Amazon.
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro tracks multiple sports and retails for around $700.
Ariano has been assigned to the Mayport-based Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Atlantic since August 2017, according to a Navy biography.
He enlisted in 2004 and is originally from West Virginia.
Update: Aviation Structural Mechanic Chief Andrea Ariano was found guilty of violating Uniform Code of Military Justice Article 121, Larceny, on Friday and was reduced in grade to E-6, fined $1,750 and issued a punitive letter of reprimand by Navy judge Cmdr. Justin McEwen, according to Naval Air Force Atlantic spokeswoman Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg.
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Courtney Mabeus-Brown is the senior reporter at Air Force Times. She is an award-winning journalist who previously covered the military for Navy Times and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., where she first set foot on an aircraft carrier. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and more.
