This was obviously the case in the moment. He clearly let the choke go loose when the guy complied / stopped fighting. Since his military service record is being used as a weapon against him by the prosecutor, his basic combatives training would have taught him to do exactly that by mere repetition with training partners.

This is why applying a blood-choke to someone should not be considered potentially deadly force simply because it's being applied. It could become that, but it isn't necessarily that.