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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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November 13th, 2006 - Fourth
Hamdania Defendant Reaches Plea Deal |
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Fourth Hamdania Defendant Reaches
Plea Deal By Mark Walker North County Times Tuesday, November 13, 2006 North County - The group
that once stood together as the 'Pendleton 8' now has only four of its
members fighting charges they kidnapped and killed an Iraqi civilian last
spring. On Monday, the attorney for
Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. said his client has reached an agreement with
prosecutors that will see him plead guilty to aggravated assault and
conspiracy to obstruct justice on Monday or Tuesday of next week. In exchange for Shumate's
guilty pleas, murder, kidnapping and related charges originally filed against
him will be dismissed, his attorney Steven Immel said. Shumate is the fourth Camp
Pendleton serviceman charged in the case to reach a plea agreement in the
April 26 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania, Iraq. Shumate admitted culpability
in a statement he made to investigators on May 11, Immel said, and the plea
deal will allow the Washington state native to serve an unspecified amount of
time and move on with his life. Immel praised prosecutors
and Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, the convening military authority over the case,
for the way they have worked with defense attorneys. "The prosecution and
Gen. Mattis were very mature and understanding throughout this process,"
Immel said. "They understood the events that led up to this and have
been very reasonable." An April 10 assault charge
against Shumate arising out of another incident in Hamdania will be
dismissed, Immel said. Several telephone calls
placed throughout the day to Shumate's parents at their home in Matlock,
Wash., were not immediately returned. Later this week, two of
Shumate's co-defendants who reached similar deals, Pfc. John Jodka III of
Encinitas, and Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson of Tracy are scheduled to be
sentenced for their roles in the killing. Jackson pleaded guilty on
Nov. 6 to aggravated assault and obstruction of justice, the same felony
crimes Jodka pleaded guilty to on Oct. 26. Last month, the first of the
men to plead guilty in the case, Petty Officer Melson Bacos, the squad's
medical corpsman, was sentenced to 12 months in the brig with credit for time
served since he was first incarcerated in late May. The men who have pleaded
guilty have pointed to their platoon leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, as
the mastermind behind the plan. With the guilty pleas from
Bacos, Jackson, Jodka and now Shumate, the remaining defendants are Hutchins,
Cpls. Marshall Magincalda and Trent Thomas, and Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington. A decision on whether
Hutchins will be ordered to trial has not yet been announced. Magincalda is
scheduled to go on trial Feb. 1 with trial dates around the same time
expected for Thomas and Pennington. Thomas is slated for his
formal arraignment this morning before Lt. Col. Tracy A. Daly. Jodka will be
sentenced on Wednesday and Jackson on Thursday. The seven Marines and one
Navy corpsman were charged on June 21 with premeditated murder, kidnapping,
assault, conspiracy and related crimes. Awad was seized from his
home in the early morning hours, bound and then marched to a hole squad
members dug on a roadside. After being placed in the hole, Awad was shot
numerous times and the killing scene was then staged to make it appear he was
an insurgent planting a roadside bomb. Bacos, Jackson and Jodka
have all told military judges that each of the men agreed to take part in the
kidnapping and each knew that the intention was to kill. The squad from the
3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment was targeting a man other than Awad, an
Iraqi named Saleh Gowad who was a suspected insurgent. When Gowad could not be
found, Awad was grabbed instead. Jodka and Jackson told the court during
their guilty pleas that they did not initially realize the man who was shot
was not Gowad. Immel said his client also will maintain that he thought the
kidnapped man was Gowad. The Hamdania case is
separate from unresolved allegations that a different Camp Pendleton squad
violated the military's rules of engagement in the deaths of 24 civilians in
the Iraqi city of Haditha last November. A decision on whether any of
the Marines involved in that incident will be charged with any wrongdoing is
expected soon. External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/14/news/top_stories/111201191930.txt |