The court martial for a Navy chief charged with espionage began this week at Naval Base San Diego.
Chief Fire Controlman Bryce Pedicini is charged with several counts of espionage and related offenses.
He pleaded guilty Wednesday to one lesser charge that he brought his cell phone into a classified work area in 2023. He denies the other charges against him.
He faces life in prison if convicted.
During their opening argument Wednesday, Navy prosecutors said Pedicini's alleged crimes began in 2022 when he was stationed in Virginia. The chief was in debt and had a negative balance in his bank account when a woman sent him a direct message on Facebook, prosecutors said.
The woman told Pedicini she was a "researcher from Japan" and offered to pay for a series of "research projects."
That's when he began writing what the prosecution called "white papers" detailing aspects of U.S. naval strategy. The prosecution said these white papers included classified information.
For each paper and update he sent the woman, he was paid $1,000, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors, the woman he was corresponding with wasn't a researcher from Japan — instead, she was an intelligence agent from another country.
The prosecution alleges when Pedicini asked for more money, the agent told him he'd need to deliver better intelligence — namely, copies of classified documents.
As a Navy fire controlman, Pedicini was trained in the AEGIS missile system used on Navy guided-missile cruisers and destroyers. Parts of the system are classified as secret and sailors who work on it are required to obtain and maintain secret security clearances, according to testimony Wednesday.
Prosecutors said when Pedicini received orders to the guided-missile destroyer Higgins in Yokosuka, Japan, he told the agent he'd have more access to classified documents.
When he reported onto the Higgins in early 2023, the ship was in dry dock and sailors were moved to a nearby berthing barge. The Navy also set up a classified work space so sailors could access the service's classified computer system.
Pedicini — who was also living on the barge — admitted he brought his phone into that classified work area. Prosecutors allege he used that phone to take pictures of files on the classified computer system and attempted to send them to the foreign agent.
That's when he was arrested.
Pedicini's defense attorneys opted not to deliver opening arguments Wednesday, saying they will do so when they begin presenting their case.
The trial is scheduled through next week.
