|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
October 5th,
2007 - 2 Schofield Soldiers Face Hearing on Death |
|
2 Schofield Soldiers
Face Hearing on Death By Gregg K. Kakesako Honolulu Star Bulletin October 5, 2007 Separate preliminary
hearings will be held this month in a Wheeler Army Airfield courtroom for two
Schofield Barracks soldiers charged with killing a civilian in Iraq in June. Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales
of San Antonio and Spc. Christopher Shore of Winder, Ga., were charged July
17 with killing an Iraqi while on a combat mission near Kirkuk on June 25. Shore will face his Article
32 hearing, a military equivalent to a preliminary hearing, on Oct. 18. Corrales' hearing will be
held on Oct. 22. The two soldiers could have
faced the death penalty. However, the Army is now seeking a sentence of life
imprisonment without parole, an Army spokeswoman said yesterday. The two soldiers are
assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th
Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. Following the shooting, Lt. Col. Michael
Browder was relieved as commander of the 2nd Battalion and replaced by Lt.
Col. Samuel Whitehurst. Browder is not a suspect in the case and was relieved
because the Army lacked confidence in his ability to command, said Lt. Col.
Michael Donnelly, 25th Division spokesman. Both Corrales, 34, and
Shore, 24, have hired civilian attorneys in addition to their military
lawyers. The brigade is completing
nearly 15 months of combat duty in Iraq, and all of its soldiers are expected
back at Schofield Barracks by the end of the month. Shore's attorney has said
that his client did not shoot the civilian as he was ordered to do by Corrales.
Instead, Shore fired his M-4 carbine twice and purposely missed, said
attorney Michael Waddington. Waddington said Shore was
one of four soldiers who reported the shooting. Lily Corrales, Trey
Corrales' wife, declined to discuss the case. "It will all come out at
the hearing," she said. She said her husband is
ready to leave Iraq. "He's looking forward to coming home," she
added. The decision whether to hold
courts-martial will be made by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, who commands the
25th Infantry Division, based on the recommendation of the officer presiding
over the preliminary hearings. Some of the 14 soldiers
killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash on Aug. 22 were supposed to have been
called as witnesses. Donnelly has said the Army
does not plan to release the names of the witnesses or provide information on
what they saw. "None of the soldiers were in any way implicated in any
misconduct related to the alleged murder of the Iraqi," Donnelly said. The two accused soldiers had
been airlifted by helicopters on the night of the alleged murder to al
Shaheed near Kirkuk to clear houses where terrorists were hiding. There were soldiers already
searching the house, Waddington said, when Shore's platoon arrived. As the
suspected terrorists were being tested for explosives, one of them ran out of
the house. Shore was inside the house,
Waddington said, and went outside and found Corrales standing before a
bleeding suspect. At that point, Waddington
said, Corrales ordered Shore to "finish him off." External link: http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/05/news/story07.html |