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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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April 29th,
2008 - Court Martial Witness Describes Shooting of Unarmed Iraqi |
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Court Martial Witness
Describes Shooting of Unarmed Iraqi By Angela K. Brown Associated Press April 29, 2008 Fort Hood, Texas - An Army
medic testified at a court-martial Tuesday that after he told his sergeant a
wounded insurgent was going to die, the sergeant ordered him to suffocate the
Iraqi and then killed the man himself. Sgt. Leonardo Trevino faces
murder and other charges in the death of the man at Muqdadiyah, Iraq, in June
2007. The medic, Spc. John Torres,
said Trevino first asked him what could be done to speed up the Iraqi's death
following a gun battle. Torres said he suggested
suffocating the wounded man but said he was only kidding. He said that when
Trevino ordered him to carry out the act he only pretended to do so by
lightly holding his hand over the man's mouth. Under cross-examination, he
denied defense attorney Richard Stevens' assertion that he felt bad because
the Iraqi was dead when he removed his hand from his mouth. "He wasn't dead,"
Torres testified. "He was still ... breathing." Trevino, of San Antonio, has
pleaded innocent. If convicted, he faces up to life in a military prison and
a discharge. Authorities say he shot the insurgent in the abdomen, a nonfatal
wound, then ordered Torres to suffocate him and finally shot the Iraqi in the
head and tried to cover up the crime. In two separate military
trials in March, Trevino's two co-defendants were acquitted, including
Torres. After the government rested
its case Tuesday afternoon, defense attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the
obstruction of justice and solicitation to commit murder charges. Col.
Gregory Gross was to rule on those motions Wednesday before the defense
started presenting its case. Earlier Tuesday, Sgt.
Tristan Miller testified that Trevino bragged about killing the Iraqi. "He said 'The man
wouldn't die. I shot him and he wouldn't die. Torres suffocated him and he wouldn't
die. Then I shot him in the head,'" Miller testified. The insurgent was killed
after U.S. soldiers engaged in a street gun battle, then followed a blood
trail and found the man with about two dozen bullet wounds. Prosecutors allege Trevino
lied by saying the Iraqi was armed, but Stevens said soldiers' stories are
inconsistent and contradict photos of the insurgent's body and other
evidence. Stevens said the insurgent, whose name U.S. authorities never
learned, was still a threat in spite of his wounds. The trial at Fort Hood,
where Trevino is a member of the 1st Cavalry Division, is expected to last a
week. © 2008 The Associated Press External link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5740682.html |