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October 21st, 2006 - Marine Set to
Plead in April Death of Iraqi Man News
article by the San Diego Union-Tribune |
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Marine Set to Plead in April
Death of Iraqi Man By Rick Rogers and David Graham San Diego Union-Tribune October 21, 2006 A Camp Pendleton Marine from
Encinitas will plead guilty to assault and obstruction of justice in the
April killing of a man in Hamdaniya, Iraq, his father and his lead attorney
said yesterday. Pfc. John J. Jodka III is
scheduled to formalize his plea agreement during a hearing Thursday at Camp
Pendleton, but won't be sentenced until Nov. 15. The prosecution is expected
to drop all other charges against him, including those for murder, kidnapping
and conspiracy, lawyer Joseph Casas said. “The interest of justice and
the best interests of my client will be served by this plea,” Casas said. He and Jodka's father
declined to say whether the Marine would have to testify against his
co-defendants. “I haven't talked with my
son in a couple of days, and I don't want to comment further out of respect
for him, the judge and the court process,” John Jodka Jr. said last night.
His son is being held in the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. Jodka will become the second
suspect in the Hamdaniya case to plead guilty. For weeks, his family had said
he wouldn't negotiate a plea agreement. “There aren't any plea deals
that we're involved in,” Jodka's father said Oct. 6. “There should be no rush
to judgment.” Casas had an explanation for
the apparent turnabout. “The charges made against him are completely
different than what he's going to plead guilty to,” he said. Jodka is among seven Marines
and a Navy corpsman accused of kidnapping and shooting Hashim Ibrahim Awad on
April 26, then trying to portray him as an insurgent who opened fire after
U.S. troops found him planting a bomb. Since they were named as
suspects in May, all eight service members were united in professing their
innocence. But on Oct. 6, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos
entered into a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to testify against the
Marines in exchange for a lighter sentence. Bacos said the squad leader,
Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, came up with the execution plan and the rest of the
unit agreed to it. He did not mention Jodka while testifying about how others
shot at Awad. Jodka had the least military
experience among the squad. He was four months into his first deployment in
Iraq when the Hamdaniya incident occurred. Two legal analysts predicted
yesterday that more defendants would negotiate plea agreements. But parents
of two defendants remained firm in saying their children would go all the way
to trial. “I'm very disgusted that the
case even exists and that (Bacos and Jodka) have rolled over on their former
brothers, and I emphasize 'their former brothers,' ” said Terry Pennington of
Hawaii, father of Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington. “It angers me totally.” In Matlock, Wash., the
father of Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. said he understood Jodka's
decision. “These are young Marines who
have been in prison since early May,” Jerry Shumate Sr. said. “There's been a
lot of pressure brought to bear on these guys. ... But we want the whole
truth to come out. We want to go forward.” External link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20061021-9999-7m21hamda.html Encinitas
Marine reported ready to plead guilty in Hamdania case By Teri Figueroa and Mark Walker North County Times October 21, 2006 Camp
Pendelton - An Encinitas Marine who until now has steadfastly maintained his
innocence is expected to plead guilty next week for his role in the April 26
killing of an Iraqi man, the Marine's attorneys said Friday. The
deal would make Pfc. John Jodka III the second of eight Camp Pendleton men to
admit to taking part in the kidnapping and slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad. Jodka,
20, is expected to plead guilty to assault and obstruction of justice, said
Joseph Casas, one of the young Marine's two civilian attorneys. Like
his co-defendants, Jodka is charged with murder, kidnapping and a host of
related offenses in Awad's death in the Iraqi village of Hamdania. Casas
declined to provide specific details on the sentence he expects his client to
receive. "I
can't talk about any negotiations with the government, assuming there are
any," he said. Jodka
is the youngest of the defendants and the lowest-ranking among the seven
Marines and Navy corpsman charged in the case. He also was the least
experienced, having been only four months into his first deployment in Iraq
when the killing took place. Through
his attorneys and family members, Jodka has said from the beginning that he
was not guilty of any wrongdoing. His
father, John Jodka Jr., a vocal critic of the prosecution, said he will
forever be proud of his son. "It's
too soon for me to respond other than to say that I'm as proud of my son as
the day he went in the Marines," he said. "He was the best damn PFC
in Iraq." Jane
Siegel, Jodka's other hired attorney, said she believes the deal is a proper
resolution for her client. "I
think that he wants to do the right thing, and I think he is," she said. Jodka
is scheduled to face a military judge in a Camp Pendleton courtroom at 9 a.m.
Thursday. He will not be sentenced until some time before Thanksgiving, his
attorney said. The
plea deal was first reported on the North County Times Web site early Friday
afternoon. On
June 21, the Marine Corps charged the men with dragging the 52-year-old Awad
out of his home, marching him about 1,000 yards, placing him in a makeshift
dirt hole and shooting him to death. They
also were accused of placing a stolen AK-47 and a shovel next to the body of
the retired Iraqi policeman and father of 14 children to make it appear he
was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb, and then lying about it. According
to charges, Jodka was among five men said to have fired on Awad. When
Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to his role in
the killing, he implicated two squad mates as triggermen: Sgt. Lawrence
Hutchins, the squad leader, and Cpl. Trent Thomas, a fire team leader in the
platoon. Bacos
said during his Oct. 6 court-martial that Hutchins fired three rounds into
Awad's head and that Thomas fired as many as 10 bullets into the man's chest. The
corpsman's testimony came as he pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy
to kidnap and make false official statements. In exchange for his plea, he
was sentenced to 12 months in the brig with credit for 142 days served and an
agreement he testify for the prosecution. The
squad was out looking for another man, one believed to be an insurgent, Bacos
said, but settled for Awad when they could not find their original target. Bacos'
testimony represented the first public airing of what may have happened. At
all the other hearings for the accused men, the investigative officers
overseeing the proceedings agreed to review the bulk of the evidence in
private. A
Marine Corps spokesman declined to confirm the Jodka agreement. "It
would be inappropriate for me to comment on any potential negotiations
between the government and defense counsel," Lt. Col. Sean Gibson said
Friday afternoon. The
accused men are all members of Camp Pendleton's 2nd platoon of Kilo Company
attached to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Jodka
attended elementary and middle school at St. James Academy, a Catholic school
in Solana Beach. He graduated from San Dieguito Academy high school in 2004
and spent an academic quarter at UC Riverside before deciding to enlist as a
Marine. In
May 2005, Jodka shipped off to boot camp, and in January was sent to Iraq. He
was there when he turned 20 in April - less than four weeks before Awad's
death. The
military opened an investigation into the incident about a week after it
occurred. By mid-May, the eight accused squad mates were under house arrest
in Iraq. The
men were flown back to Camp Pendleton two weeks later and placed in the brig
there on May 24. Two weeks ago, Jodka and Bacos were moved to the brig at
Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. A
second guilty plea could have a dramatic effect on the other cases, according
to Georgetown University law professor and attorney Gary Solis. "I
hesitate to say it will spur more guilty pleas," Solis said, "but
if I were one of the defense counsel I would be foolish if I didn't say to my
client 'Why don't we look into the possibility of a plea deal? If we can get
something like this, would you be interested?'" A
retired Marine who spent more than two decades as a military lawyer and
judge, Solis said potential jurors in any trials for the remaining defendants
were more than likely to be aware of the deals that prosecutors reached with
Bacos and Jodka. "Theoretically,
it's supposed to have no effect because each case is tried individually. But
practically speaking, it would be hard to ignore and difficult for a juror
not to realize these other cases are going at a lower price." He
added that a second plea deal is not all that surprising given the apparent
strength of the government's case based on statements each manmade to Naval
Criminal Investigative Service agents in Iraq when confronted shortly after
Awad's death. "The
government seemingly has such strong evidence, so for someone to flip and
make a deal to testify for the prosecution is not exactly shocking,"
Solis said. Diann
Shumate, mother of co-defendant Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., seemed
discouraged when told of the news when reached at her home in western
Washington state. "They
are really putting the pressure on these guys," she said, declining
further comment. Her
son lost a bid for release from the brig last week and has reserved his right
to enter a plea against the charges he faces. Despite
the guilty plea by Bacos and now the apparent Jodka deal, supporters of the
men who have conducted rallies in front of the Camp Pendleton gate each
Saturday since the summer are expected there again today, albeit in far
smaller numbers. A
rally organizer, Christine Bruce, said this week that the demonstrators
numbered about a dozen last Saturday compared with more than 100 when they
first began months ago. "People
are sort of feeling now like there's just a lot that we don't know and we will
just watch and see what happens," Bruce said. Participants
were disappointed when word of the Bacos deal came, she added. "But
we don't know his full story and his reasons for doing what he did," she
said in reference to the corpsman. Contact
staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com. Fast Facts The
following is the status of seven Marines and Navy corpsman charged with
killing a 52-year-old Iraqi man in the village of Hamdania on April 26. Each
remain in custody in the brig at either Camp Pendleton or Miramar Marine
Corps Air Station. Petty
Officer Melson Bacos, 21, Franklin, Wis.: Pleaded guilty Oct. 6 to kidnapping
and conspiracy to kidnap and making false official statements. In exchange,
Bacos was given a 12-month jail sentence - with 142 days credit for time
served - and an agreement that he testify for the government. Sgt.
Lawrence Hutchins III, 22, Plymouth, Mass.: Article 32 investigative hearing
conducted Monday. Awaiting hearing officer's recommendation to Lt. Gen. James
Mattis as to whether he should be ordered to trial. Lance
Cpl. Tyler Jackson, 23, Tracy: Waived Article 32 hearing and has been ordered
to trial. Pfc.
John Jodka III, 20, Encinitas: Set to appear at a court-martial Thursday to
plead guilty to assault and obstruction of justice, his attorneys said
Friday. Cpl.
Marshall Magincalda, 23, Manteca: Ordered to trial by Lt. Gen. Mattis.
Pleaded not guilty during arraignment proceeding last month. Trial is set for
Feb. 1. Lance
Cpl. Robert Pennington, 22, Mukilteo, Wash.: Waived Article 32 hearing and
has been ordered to trial. Lance
Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., 21, Matlock, Wash.: Ordered to trial by Lt. Gen.
Mattis. Reserved the right to enter plea to charges at a later date during
arraignment Friday. Trial is set for Feb. 12. Cpl.
Trent D. Thomas, 24, St. Louis, Mo.: Waived Article 32 hearing and has been
ordered to trial. External link:
http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/21/news/top_stories/2_00_0610_20_06.txt |