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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
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November 21st,
2006 - Third Marine Pleads Guilty in Hamdania Killing News article by the North County Times |
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Third Marine Pleads Guilty
in Hamdania Killing By Mark Walker North County Times November 21, 2006 Camp Pendleton - A third
Marine pleaded guilty to reduced charges this morning in the slaying of an
Iraqi civilian, becoming the fourth of eight locally based troops to admit
wrongdoing in the case. Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate
Jr. pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Original charges of murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related offense will
be dismissed. Shumate's guilty pleas were
accepted after he told the military judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, that he
was voluntarily entering the pleas. The hearing is continuing
today with Meeks slated to hear testimony from Shumate describing his role in
the April 26 shooting death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, and he also will hear
from the Matlock, Wash., native's father and sister. After that, the defense and
prosecution will present arguments over what sentence Shumate should receive.
Meeks will consider those arguments and then pronounce the jail term he
believes the 21-year-old lance corporal should serve. That sentence will be set
aside, however, as a result of Shumate's plea agreement with Lt. Gen. James
N. Mattis, the convening authority over the case as head of Camp Pendleton's
I Marine Expeditionary Force. The agreement that Shumate's
attorneys arranged with prosecutors and Mattis includes the actual sentence
he will be ordered to serve, but it will not be revealed until after Meeks
pronounces his recommended sentence. Shumate was on his first
tour in Iraq when he and six other Marines and a Navy corpsman from Camp
Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment seized the 52-year-old Awad
from his home in the village of Hamdania, bound and gagged him and then shot
him to death. The squad then reported that
Awad was an insurgent who was in the midst of planting a roadside bomb when
he was killed. Two other Marines, Lance
Cpl. Tyler Jackson and Pfc. John Jodka III, also pleaded guilty to aggravated
assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice and were sentenced to 21 months
and 18 months respectively. The squad's medical
corpsman, Petty Officer Melson Bacos, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and
conspiracy to kidnap and make false official statements and was sentenced to
12 months in the brig. As the Shumate hearing was
under way, a hearing for another defendant was continuing in an adjacent
courtroom. In that hearing, attorneys for Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington are
arguing to have him released from the brig pending trial. On Monday, Pennington
testified that he asked for but was not provided with an attorney when
questioned about the Awad killing by Naval Criminal Investigative Service
agents at Camp Fallujah in Iraq in May. The military judge presiding over
Pennington's case is being asked by his attorneys to suppress that statement
because of their contention he sought but was not provided with an attorney,
a violation of a criminal suspect's rights. Two NCIS agents contradicted
Pennington's testimony, however, when they testified Monday, saying the
native of the town Mukilteo, Wash., never asked for an attorney and
voluntarily made implicating statements. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/11/21/news/top_stories/1_01_1011_21_06.txt Marine Charged In Iraqi
Death Says He Was Denied An Attorney NBCSanDiego.com November 21, 2006 Camp Pendleton, Calif. - One
of the Marines charged with the kidnap and murder of an Iraqi civilian said
Monday that government officials violated his basic rights when they interviewed
him about the incident - claims military prosecutors denied. Lance Cpl. Robert B.
Pennington, 22, made the allegations as part of an effort to discredit some
of the key pieces of evidence against him - statements he gave in which
prosecutors say he admits wrongdoing. Pennington testified at a
Monday hearing that when Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents
interviewed him following the April 26 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, they
threatened him with the death penalty and told him it would be a mistake to
ask for an attorney. An agent "said that
would be the worst mistake I could make," Pennington said. Pennington, of Mukilteo,
Wash., was on his third tour in Iraq and part of a squad of seven Marines and
a Navy corpsman attached to Kilo Company in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine
Regiment from Camp Pendleton. All eight were originally charged with
kidnapping a 52-year-old civilian in the rural Iraqi town of Hamdania. The
squad dragged him to a roadside hole and killed him, prosecutors allege, then
tried to cover up the killing by planting a shovel and a gun by the body to
make it look like Awad was an insurgent. Pennington was the first in
the case to testify and then be cross-examined. Three other members of the
squad testified previously as they pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Government prosecutors said
Pennington should not be believed, since he lied before. Immediately after
the killing, Pennington and the rest of the squad reported that Awad was an
insurgent and were justified in shooting him. Pennington's defense attorneys
have filed a motion seeking to bar the government from using his statements
and other potentially incriminating accounts by fellow squad members. The
judge was expected to rule on the motion Tuesday. "The accused has the
incentive to lie," prosecutor Lt. Col. John Baker told the judge.
"That's what this case boils down to, who do you believe?" The government called two
NCIS agents who testified they did not violate Pennington's rights. Both said
the Marine did not ask for an attorney, made several amendments to his
statement before signing it and said he understood his rights. They also
denied threatening him with the death penalty. Although the agents had the
audio and video equipment to record Pennington's interrogation, they did not.
An explanation was not given. During Monday's hearing,
Pennington testified that he drew for the interrogating agents five diagrams
depicting the various positions of the squad members at the time Awad was
killed. Pennington also said he annotated a photograph of Awad's body,
pointing to the gag he said he used on the victim. The Marine claimed
prosecutors said they would help him to get "a very good deal" if
he cooperated with them. Pennington's civilian
attorney David Brahms said he planned to file another motion Tuesday seeking
to have the Marine removed from the brig while he awaits trial. Military
courts have no bail system. Also Tuesday, another Marine
in the case, Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., was expected to plead guilty to
new charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. All
original charges, including murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, larceny, assault
and housebreaking, would be dismissed in return for his testimony, according
to his lawyer. Shumate would become the
fourth person to take a plea deal in the case. Copyright 2006 by
NBCSandiego.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights
reserved. External link:
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/10370201/detail.html |