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August 5th,
2007 - Accused Soldier’s Wife Stands Behind Him News article by the Honolulu
Star-Bulletin |
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Accused Soldier’s Wife Stands
Behind Him Sgt. Trey Corrales is charged with killing an Iraqi in custody By Gregg K. Kakesako Honolulu Star-Bulletin August 5, 2007 Two photos on Sgt. 1st Class
Trey A. Corrales' Web site depict the Schofield Barracks soldier briefing
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, during a combat
mission earlier this summer. "He was extremely proud
of that," says his wife, Lily Corrales. Corrales says those photos
best portray her husband as the consummate warrior and not the person charged
by the Army with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi. Trey Corrales of San Antonio
was charged July 17 with ordering the killing of an Iraqi that he and Spc.
Christopher Shore, of Winder, Ga., had in their custody in Kirkuk. Both are
members of the 25th Infantry Division and could face the death penalty if
convicted at a court-martial of premeditated murder. Their case is one of at
least seven in which soldiers have been charged with killing Iraqis. Lily Corrales said her
husband, who will mark his 14th year in the Army in November, has been
separated from his platoon and is now assigned to Forward Operating Base
McHenry in Iraq. Shore, 25, is in Iraq at Forward Operating Base Warrior. When they were charged,
Corrales, 34, and Shore were infantry scouts with Headquarters and
Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
They believed the Iraqi was a terrorist, family members have said. Lily Corrales, who served in
the Army for three years as a pharmacy technician, said she talks regularly
by phone with her husband and that he said he isn't bitter. "I just talked with
him," said Corrales, who lives with the couple's two children in
Aliamanu, "and he told me that if everything works out in his favor, he
wants to stay in and finish his 20 years." She doesn't like the way the
Army has presented the incident, which occurred on June 23 at Al-Saheed near
Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad. Corrales' civilian attorney,
retired Air Force officer Frank Spinner, has told her to not discuss the
specifics of the case. Spinner has taken on
numerous high-profile military cases. Lily Corrales said her
husband "would never do anything that would jeopardize his family or his
career. Being a soldier is something he has always wanted to do as a child. "I believe in my
husband. I have faith in my husband. I believe he was doing what he was told
and what was right." In the charge sheet released
by the 25th Division, the Army alleged that Corrales shot an Iraq detainee
several times with his rifle and then ordered Shore to do the same. The
incident was reported by fellow 3rd Brigade Combat Team soldiers, the Army
reported. Lily Corrales said her
husband, who served in Afghanistan in 2004 with the 25th Division, has been
awarded two Bronze Star medals and the Audie Murphy award, which singles out
infantry soldiers for soldiering skills. Although the two grew up in
the same San Antonio neighborhood, Lily Corrales said they started dating
after graduating from different high schools. They were married in 1997. Sgt. 1st Class Trey
Corrales, shown here with his 6-year-old daughter, Victoria, is not guilty of
murdering an Iraqi, his wife says. Corrales is one of two Schofield Barracks
soldiers accused of the crime. She said her husband wanted
to become an Army Ranger after reading about their exploits in Mogadishu,
Somalia, which was focal point of the 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down." Trey Corrales enlisted in
the Army in 1993 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in 2004. The Army hasn't told her
when her husband will go before an Article 32 hearing, similar to civilian
preliminary hearing, to determine whether he will be tried at a
court-martial. The hearing is expected to be held in northern Iraq. If a
court-martial is held, it probably will be at Schofield Barracks. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon,
who commands the 25th Infantry Division and Multinational Division-North,
will determine whether Corrales and Shore will face a court-martial based
upon the findings of the Article 32 hearing. Because of the cost of
hiring a civilian attorney, the couple has started a defense fund at Bank of
America. It is listed on Corrales' Web site, www.treycorrales.com. Besides photos of Corrales
with his son and daughter and of him coaching his son's football team, the
site features several photos of Corrales' platoon. Another Schofield Barracks
soldier, Pfc. Edward Richmond Jr., was convicted of killing an Iraqi
civilian. Richmond - assigned to Alpha
Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry - was charged In August 2004, with
other soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, with killing an Iraqi
civilian in their custody. Richmond, of Gonzales, La.,
was the only 25th Infantry Division soldier convicted in the shooting. He
said that he was following the orders of his unit commander, Sgt. Jeffrey D.
Waruch. He was sentenced to three years, but was paroled after two years. Waruch was implicated in
another shooting incident that same year involving the death of a 13-year-old
Iraqi girl and the wounding of her mother and sister. However, Waruch was
allowed to leave the Army without being charged. External link: http://starbulletin.com/2007/08/05/news/story02.html Lawyer says client didn't
shoot Iraqi By Associated Press August 5, 2007 Athens, Ga. - The lawyer for
a soldier accused of fatally shooting an Iraqi man said the evidence
exonerates his client. The Army has alleged that
Spc. Christopher "Phillip" Shore shot the man under orders from
another soldier who already had shot the victim several times. The Army
"charge sheet" document alleges that Shore stood over the body and
fired, but his attorney Michael Waddington says an autopsy report concludes
the Iraqi man was shot five times from a distance. "The Army pathologist's
report says there were no stippling or powder burns on the victim's body, so
to say my guy stood over him and blasted him a couple of times, that just
didn't happen," Waddington said. "In a case like this, it all comes
down to forensics." Shore, of Winder, Ga., and
the other soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales of San Antonio, have been
charged with premeditated murder in the June 23 killing of an unidentified
man near Kirkuk in northern Iraq. The Iraqi man died a few days after the
shooting. "Spc. Shore is one of
four guys who turned in Corrales, and that's why he's so shocked that he got
charged," Waddington told the Athens Banner-Herald. Waddington will represent
Shore during a hearing that will determine whether the case goes to a
court-martial. It is scheduled for Wednesday, but the lawyer said he has
asked that it be postponed because of a scheduling conflict. Waddington also said he has
filed a motion to try Shore separately from Corrales. Corrales' attorney, Frank
Spinner, previously said after reading the Army's charge sheet that he wanted
to see the evidence of the case. The Army has not made public
any information about the Iraqi man's death beyond what is contained in two
pages of charge sheet documents. "It's kind of a
circumstantial case, because there were no witnesses to what happened,"
Waddington said. "Spc. Shore is the only one who implicates himself, the
only guy who said, 'I popped off two rounds but I didn't hit the guy.'" Corrales and Shore are
assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th
Infantry Regiment, which is part of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division. The battalion commander, Lt.
Col. Michael Browder, was fired for leadership failure but is not a suspect
and has not been charged with any offense, the military has said. External link: http://www.mercurynews.com/natbreakingnews/ci_6551095 |