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November 7th,
2007 - Army Investigator Recommends Against Murder Trial for Soldier News article by the Associated
Press |
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Army Investigator Recommends
Against Murder Trial for Soldier By Audrey McAvoy Associated Press November 7, 2007 Honolulu - A U.S. military
investigator on Tuesday recommended against trying a Hawaii-based soldier for
the premeditated murder of an unarmed Iraqi, saying there wasn't enough
evidence to show he shot and killed the man. Spc. Christopher Shore and
his platoon leader, Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales, have both been charged with
murdering the Iraqi, who has not been identified by name in the military
judicial proceedings. Lt. Col. Raul Gonzalez, the
officer who presided over a hearing last month to determine whether Shore
should be tried, said that while Shore should not be tried for murder, he
should be court-martialed for aggravated assault. Gonzalez said there was
"overwhelming evidence" showing Corrales shot at the man multiple
times with the intention of killing him. Corrales, of San Antonio, has waived
his right to a hearing prior to a decision whether he should be
court-martialed for the Iraqi's murder. "Reasonable grounds do
not exist to believe that the accused committed premeditated murder,"
Gonzalez wrote of Shore, according to a copy of the report obtained by The
Associated Press. The commander of the 25th
Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, is expected to consult the
report while deciding whether Shore should be court-martialed. The soldiers are members of
the 3rd Brigade Combat Team in the 25th Infantry Division which recently
returned to Hawaii from a 15-month deployment to Iraq. Shore's lawyer, Michael
Waddington, said Gonzalez' recommendation "is a big win" for his
client if it is followed. Waddington portrayed
Corrales, during arguments at Shore's hearing, as an abusive, volatile
platoon sergeant that had physically threatened his soldiers. Shore, 25, of Winder, Ga.,
testified that he shot at the Iraqi man after Corrales fired several shots at
him and then ordered him to "finish" the Iraqi. But Shore said he
intentionally missed and only fired because he was afraid of openly
disobeying an order Corrales had issued. The platoon detained the
Iraqi man during a raid on a house near Kirkuk where the soldiers believed
insurgents who had been planting roadside bombs were hiding. Shore and other soldiers in
the platoon testified the shooting happened after the detainee had
surrendered. Corrales, 35, was asked to
testify at Shore's hearing, but he invoked his right against
self-incrimination. Because the San Antonio
native waived his right to a preliminary hearing of his own, Mixon will
decide whether Corrales should be court-martialed based on evidence Army
investigators have collected in the case. Gonzalez' report said
Corrales' "abusive and unlawful leadership techniques" had created
an unhealthy environment for the platoon. This was exacerbated by poor
command oversight, the report said, noting the platoon did not have a
lieutenant to supervise Corrales and the other soldiers. Gonzalez also recommended
that the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Michael Browder, face an outside
investigation for his "indirect involvement in the platoon's
actions" on the night of the killing. The Army has already
relieved Browder of his command in connection with the case, though officials
have said he was not a suspect in the killing of the Iraqi. © 2007 The Associated Press External link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5280465.html Report: Evidence against
Corrales in Iraqi's slaying “overwhelming” By Sig Christenson San Antonio Express-News November 11, 2007 An Army hearing officer says
there is “overwhelming evidence” that Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales killed an
Iraqi prisoner after a raid last summer, and that Corrales tried to cover up
the crime. In a report to his
commanders in Hawaii filed Tuesday, Lt. Col. Raul Gonzalez also said
Corrales, a San Antonio native, led his elite 25th Infantry Division scout platoon
in “abusive and unlawful” ways and wanted to get back at insurgents for the
killing of U.S. soldiers. Laying the blame for the
killing solely on Corrales, Gonzalez said there were no “reasonable grounds”
for Spc. Christopher P. Shore, who was also charged with premeditated murder
in the case, to go on trial. Gonzalez pointed to Corrales as the true
culprit, saying he entered a suspected insurgent's home with murder on his
mind. “Once inside the house, Sgt.
1st Class Corrales' actions and demeanor were of vengeance and reprisal,”
Gonzalez wrote after fielding evidence in an Article 32 hearing for Shore. “He left no question through
his actions that he intended to kill a ‘bad guy' whether he was a combatant
or not. After stating he was going to kill the next detainee that came up
positive for explosive residue, he then took a detainee outside, behind the
house, and shot him five to seven times.” Gonzalez's report
complicates the Army's efforts to try Shore, 25, of Winder, Ga., in the
shooting. Both he and Corrales, a one-time Luther Burbank High School
football player, are accused of shooting the prisoner after a raid on the
night of June 22-23 - a crime that carries life in prison or death by lethal
injection. The detainee died of his wounds two days later. The hearing, which is
similar to a civilian grand jury, offered military prosecutors the chance to
show that Shore was an active and willing conspirator. But Gonzalez made it
clear he believed evidence provided by Georgia defense attorney Michael Waddington,
which depicted Shore as an unwitting victim and Corrales as sadistic,
manipulative and bloodthirsty. Gonzalez said the murder
charge should be dismissed and that Shore instead be charged with aggravated
assault. He also said an outside investigation should be launched into the
conduct of Shore's battalion commander, Lt. Col. Michael Browder, “for his
indirect involvement” in the platoon's actions on that night. Those recommendations were
sent to Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of the Honolulu-based division.
Mixon can follow or ignore Gonzalez's recommendation. He is expected to
decide next week if Shore and Corrales should be put on trial. “His recommendation against
the murder charge is strong,” said Waddington, who practices in Evans, Ga.
“Assuming they follow it, this is a big win.” Corrales, 35, of Honolulu,
did not return phone calls Wednesday, and has not talked about the case. His
civilian attorney, Frank Spinner, could not be reached and has declined to
comment in detail on the case. However, he told the San Antonio Express-News in
a recent interview that he expects a trial to be ordered and that his client
would plead not guilty. “Because there's a lot more
work to do that requires expert involvement, many of the questions will not
and cannot be answered until trial,” said Spinner, a St. Mary's University
School of Law graduate. “Let me just say the factual scenario is much more
complex than what it appeared to be in Shore's Article 32 hearing.” Gonzalez was clearly swayed
by Waddington's argument that Corrales was a brutal, deceptive and
occasionally violent soldier, and that there was little evidence to show that
Shore actually helped him kill the Iraqi. He also said Shore's decision to
report the incident after the mission was “very uncharacteristic of a person
who was trying to hide or be evasive.” The scout platoon led by
Corrales was dispatched via helicopter to the town of Al Shaheed southwest of
Kirkuk after insurgents fired on an Army helicopter. Testimony from platoon
members revealed that Corrales had ordered the men to kill all the “military-age”
males they encountered - something he had told them in the past. Those
soldiers also said he had vowed to kill any prisoner testing positive for
gunpowder residue. Gonzalez, the investigating
officer, said the evidence showed that Corrales “did, with the intent to
kill, shoot at and hit the detainee multiple times with an M-4 rifle.” He
also said an “unhealthy environment” existed in the platoon “due to the
abusive and unlawful leadership techniques inflicted” by Corrales and “exacerbated
by poor” supervision. But there also was evidence
that Corrales tried to give the prisoner an AK-47 and that he ordered the
Iraqi to run in both Arabic and English, raised his rifle and fired it five
to seven times, Gonzalez said in the report. “Several soldiers, in both
testimony and sworn statements, described Sgt. 1st Class Corrales' notable
aggressive and hostile behavior throughout the entire mission, but more
specifically in the moments leading up to the shooting,” Gonzalez wrote.
Statements and testimony in the hearing, Gonzalez said, showed that Corrales
was the only person in the courtyard with the detainee when those initial
rounds were fired. The detainee then lay wounded on the ground in a ditch
near a shed, he wrote, calling the sequence of events “virtually irrefutable
based on all of the testimony and sworn statements.” Shore is accused of firing
two rounds into the prisoner moments later after briefly thinking of what to
do once Corrales ordered him to shoot the man - a crucial element in the
Army's decision to charge him with premeditated murder. But Shore has
insisted he was thinking of how to avoid shooting him, and that he actually
fired away from the prisoner. Gonzalez accepted
Waddington's theory that it would have been difficult for his client to fire
the last two bullets into the detainee's head. Using a mannequin's head and
having members of his team lay on the courtroom floor as the hearing closed,
Waddington showed the angles of the bullets' trajectory. In his report, Gonzalez
stated that evidence from the victim's wounds supports testimony that the
prisoner was backing away from Corrales when multiple shots were fired. Gonzalez based his decision
“that only the shots fired by Sgt. 1st Class Corrales and not Spc. Shore
could have caused these wounds” on several factors - including his analysis
of close-up pictures of the victim's facial wounds and the mannequin that
showed “the most likely line of travel” the two bullets would have taken, He
also cited a pathology report's description of the entry and exit wounds. Other factors in his
decision included sworn statements and testimony showing “numerous illogical
and unlawful behaviors” by some platoon members that stemmed from Corrales'
leadership. The platoon members served in “a threatening and abusive work
environment” and were led by Corrales with little oversight, Gonzalez wrote.
It wasn't unusual, he added, for Corrales to waive a knife at his soldiers,
threaten them verbally or make them fear for their jobs. “Just as damning as the
actions Sgt. 1st Class Corrales took prior to the shooting are the actions he
took after the shooting to cover up what had just transpired. Sgt. 1st Class
Corrales ordered the use of the interpreter's AK-47 as a ‘drop weapon' to
give the appearance that the shot detainee was a non-combatant but instead an
armed combatant,” Gonzalez said in his report, noting that such a rifle was
carried on every mission in case “an illegal or questionable shooting” took
place. “Sgt. 1st Class Corrales gave
a false report of the events that transpired out loud to all those in and
around the aftermath, stating he shot the man because he was trying to flee.” External link: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA1100707.corrales.EN.1e9a2b641.html |