AF, I am in agreement with you on this one. You have already related the Scripture that shows David's guilt (2 Sam 12:9), but this isn't just confirmed by direct revelation, but is also confirmed as a matter of legal principle. Murder, in it's most distilled form, is when one human being intentional kills another without excuse or justification. We have a clear expression of intent here:
And he wrote in the letter, saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die.
(2 Samuel 11:15)
So we have Mens Rea, a smoking gun clearly showing the mental state of not just motive, but intent to kill.
And we have action. He didn't just sit in his royal bedroom fantasizing about it. He took steps, involving conspiracy with others, to bring about the death of Uriah.
And we have in loyal, obedient, unselfish Uriah no just cause, nor any excuse, for his death, other than his happy(?) estate as the husband of Bathsheba.
The fact that the killing was performed, indirectly, by an intentional withdrawal of help in the heat of battle, does not alleviate David's guilt. Murder by conspiracy, where the victim is intentional exposed to lethal danger, is every bit as culpable as if David had stabbed Uriah with his own sword. It would be structured as a conspiracy to commit murder by omission.
The point is, if even imperfect human law can see through the sham of murder by premeditated exposure to lethal harm through the directed acts of intermediaries, then most certainly under divine law David's guilt would be inescapable. And we know from the prophet that this was in fact God's view of the matter, as you have already pointed out. So I fail to see how this can even be a controversy. Open and shut.
But if all that is still not enough, I remind everyone that Jesus raised the bar even higher in the Sermon on the Mount, where we learn that to avoid a charge of murder in the Court of Heaven, one must avoid all unjustified anger. Ouch! How does one get through life without ever tripping
that wire? I am grateful for God's grace, because by that standard I am no better than David, and would have no hope, no commutation of sentence, apart from the pardon provided by the death of Jesus in my place. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound ....
Peace,
SR