A Memphis man who smashed his bride through a toilet water tank on their honeymoon at the exclusive Turtle Island Resort in Fiji has been sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

Bradley Dawson, a 41-year-old IT specialist, was arrested on July 10, 2022, after police in the Pacific island nation found Christe Chen Dawson, a 36-year-old pharmacist originally from Denver, dead in their private cabana: Bure 15. They had married five months earlier and arrived in Fiji two days before hotel staff found her dead.

After a night of partying on the beach, a drunken argument ended with Dawson beating her to death in a bathroom and fleeing the island on a stolen kayak, according to trial testimony.

He told them the toilet and window both broke in the scuffle and that he left and came back. She hadn’t moved, so he grabbed a kayak and paddled off into the night.

When police asked if he would show them where the fight happened, he said he didn’t want to go back and face the other guests.

Prosecutor Sheenal Swastika leaves High Court in Lautoka, Fiji, on Jan. 27, 2025. Swastika successfully prosecuted Bradley Dawson, who murdered his wife, Christie Chen. (Tim Tava for Fox News Digital)

Although Dawson pleaded not guilty, he declined to testify in his own defense and called no witnesses to the stand. Instead, the defense argued that Chen fell down while drunk and inflicted her own fatal injuries.

“This Court cannot accept this version of the accused,” Hamza said at the end of the trial. The injuries were too extreme, and a reasonable person would have tried to help rather than left her body propped up against the toilet.

Dawson has 30 days to appeal. 

The Turtle Island Resort is on a 500-acre private island off the Fiji mainland and is known for idyllic reefs, a pristine beach and as the backdrop for the 1980 movie “Blue Lagoon” starring Brooke Shields.