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Detective: Jacksonville U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer's alleged killer shouldn't have been free

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Newly released documents, interrogation videos and interviews show U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Andrea Washington called the police on Danny Beard days before her death, saying he attacked her.

In an interrogation of Beard, a detective said he wishes charges were pressed then, saying Washington would still be alive.

In a sobering moment in that new video, he said they were still in the process of collecting evidence.

Washington's body was found in September 2018 in her home on Itani Road.

In new documents, neighbors told detectives they heard a violent fight that same night.

Washington seemed to have it all.  A mother of three and a 19-year veteran of the Navy, she had just been pinned as a chief petty officer.

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But days later, her friend Marlon Jones and her ex, Beard, found Washington dead after first receiving concerning texts.

"He got to the end of the couch by her bedroom, and that's when he saw her," Jones said in a new interview video.

Prosecutors said Beard was acting, sending fake texts from Washington's phone to try to cover his tracks.

Court records show Washington had filed for an injunction against Beard weeks prior, saying he pushed her down to the floor, kicked in her in the stomach and pulled a gun on her.

In the new interrogation video, the detective even said she took steps to protect herself through the Navy.

"I wish they would've pressed charges on you the first time you beat her up, because she'd still be alive," the detective said to Beard in a January interrogation.

Detectives talked to Beard twice, and he never admitted to the murder.

"You're going to look like a cold-blooded murderer, that's what you're going to look like," the detective said.

Beard faces second-degree murder charges, and so far, a trial date has not been set.

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