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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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February 8th,
2007 - Judge Grants Marine’s Request to Withdraw Guilty Plea in Murder News article by the Associated Press |
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Judge Grants Marine’s Request
to Withdraw Guilty Plea in Murder By Thomas Watkins Associated Press February 08, 2007 Camp Pendleton, Calif. - A
military judge granted a Marine corporal's request Thursday to withdraw his
guilty plea to charges of murdering an unarmed Iraqi civilian who was dragged
from his home and shot. Cpl. Trent Thomas asked to
change the plea, saying he no longer believes he is guilty. Thomas now says
he believes he was following a lawful order from his superiors. "Sir, when my country
gives me an order, I follow it," Thomas told the judge, Lt. Col. Tracy
Daley. Thomas, 25, of Madison,
Ill., pleaded guilty Jan. 18 to eight felonies including kidnapping, murder
and assault. He was one of a squad of seven Marines and a sailor accused last
year of hatching a plot to kill an Iraqi in the town of Hamdania. Four others
pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Thomas, the squad's second in command,
could face life in prison. Outside court, Kelley said
Thomas had an "epiphany" Wednesday night and decided to withdraw
his pleas. "Corporal Thomas has always wanted to fight it," Kelley
said of the charges. The request to withdraw the
pleas came at the beginning of the second day of Thomas' sentencing hearing. On Wednesday, the Navy
medic, who said he was one of Thomas' closest friends, testified that the
Marine corporal played an instrumental role in carrying out the kidnapping
and murder. Seaman Recruit Melson J.
Bacos testified that Thomas, along with Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, entered the
home of Hashim Ibrahim Awad's on April 26 while Bacos and Lance Cpl. Robert
Pennington waited outside. Thomas and Magincalda returned with a
confused-looking Awad, Bacos said, then the troops started walking him away
from the house. For much of that march,
Thomas held onto Awad, Bacos said. "He was grabbing him,
pushing him forward," Bacos said. "If he was talking, he told him
to shut up, be quiet." Bacos said the squad forced
Awad into a hole and shot him, then tried to cover it up by placing an AK-47
and shovel by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a
bomb. Prosecutors - as well as
other squad members who made plea deals - have said the troops wanted to kill
an Iraqi insurgent they suspected of planting bombs. They couldn't find the
man, and instead kidnapped Awad, according to court testimony. Bacos, testifying about 12
feet from where Thomas sat, did not make eye contact with his friend, whom he
met in 2004 and served with on an earlier Iraq combat tour. When a prosecutor
asked Bacos whether it was difficult to testify about Thomas, he said,
"It's not easy at all, sir." Thomas' wife, Erica Thomas,
said outside court Wednesday that her husband is a Christian and a good
father to their 2-year-old daughter, and that he bears no anger toward his
colleagues or the Marine Corps for prosecuting him. "He's got no animosity
toward anyone," Erica Thomas said. "He would re-enlist in the
Marines if he could." External link: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/16654774.htm Sailor recounts man’s death;
defense to call 27 witnesses By Rick Rogers San Diego Union-Tribune February 8, 2007 Camp Pendleton – With a
guilty plea in the bag, prosecutors in the murder case against Marine Cpl.
Trent D. Thomas would have been forgiven for pulling some punches at
yesterday's sentencing hearing. After all, Thomas had taken
the stand last month as part of a plea agreement and acknowledged his crimes.
He gave a detailed account of how he and seven other Camp Pendleton
servicemen kidnapped Hashim Ibrahim Awad and shot him to death April 26 in
Hamdaniya, Iraq. Thomas also agreed to testify against his co-defendants. But prosecutors were not in
a forgiving mood yesterday as they laid out their case for a just punishment
to military judge Lt. Col. Tracy A. Daly. The judge will issue a
sentence even though Thomas' sealed plea agreement already includes a
sentence determined by Lt. Gen. James Mattis. Under the Uniformed Code of
Military Justice, Thomas will get the lesser of those two sentences. Thomas, 25, has pleaded
guilty to charges including unpremeditated murder and assault. In previous
months, four other Hamdaniya suspects pleaded guilty to lesser charges and
received prison terms from less than a year to 21 months. One of those men, Navy
Hospitalman Recruit Melson J. Bacos, yesterday spoke on behalf of the
prosecution. Bacos said, “It's not easy
at all” to testify against Thomas, whom he described as a friend who had
often attended church with him. Bacos recalled how Thomas
led a four-person team that abducted Awad from his home. Bacos said the four
kidnappers – himself, Thomas, Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington and Cpl.
Marshall L. Magincalda – next dragged the victim to a roadside hole. Then
Thomas tied Awad's feet and Pennington stuffed a gag into the Iraqi's mouth,
Bacos testified. Bacos said he saw Thomas
shoot Awad at close range. “And you remember seeing
Cpl. Thomas shooting Mr. Awad in the chest?” asked Capt. Nick Gannon, the
junior member of the prosecution team. “Yes, sir,” said Bacos, who
was almost whispering during his time on the stand. “When everything was cleaned
up, I remember (our squad leader) saying, 'Congratulations, we just got away
with murder, gents,' ” Bacos said. People attending yesterday's
hearing included Erica Thomas, wife of the accused. She said her husband is a
devout Christian who attended Bible school at Messenger College in Joplin,
Mo., before joining the Marine Corps. The couple have a 2-year-old daughter,
Kayla. Erica Thomas sat quietly in
the courtroom, but said that's not how she felt inside. “Sometimes I wanted to
object,” she said. “(The prosecutors) need to be in these guys' shoes to know
what combat is like. My husband is a good person ... and it makes me upset
that the court process has been so long.” She insisted that Thomas is
keeping a positive attitude amid his adversities. “He's got no animosity
against someone” in the case, she said. Erica Thomas said there's a
big difference between her husband's current incarceration in the Camp
Pendleton brig and his deployment to Iraq. “I don't have to worry about
getting a knock at the door and two men letting me know that he died” in
combat, she said. Starting today, the defense
is expected to begin calling the first of 27 witnesses, including an expert
in post-traumatic stress disorder. “It is the most witnesses I
have ever called in a court-martial,” said Victor Kelley, the civilian
defense attorney for Thomas. “Some are friends and family and others are
Marines he served with.” The unusually high number of
defense witnesses might be a strategy to portray Thomas in a sympathetic
light with the judge, some legal analysts are saying. They say the tactic is
needed because unlike the other defendants who have entered into plea
agreements, Thomas played a larger role in Awad's killing and he's the only
one who has pleaded guilty to murder. External link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20070208-9999-1mi8thomas.html |