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 News from Around the Americas | November 2005 
US Probe Recommends Possible Death for Sergeant
 Haitham Haddadin - Reuters
| | A U.S. army soldier is seen during a routine patrol in Tikrit, Iraq, October 22, 2005. A U.S. military probe recommended on Tuesday that a sergeant charged with murdering two colleagues in Iraq face a possible death sentence at a court martial for the first such crime since the 2003 invasion. (Reuters/Jorge Silva) |
A U.S. military probe recommended on Tuesday that a sergeant charged with murdering two colleagues in Iraq face a possible death sentence at a court martial for the first such crime since the 2003 invasion.
Investigating officer Colonel Patrick Reinert said in the non-binding recommendation that he found "aggravating factors" that could permit possible capital punishment for Staff Sergeant Alberto Martinez.
The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. John Vines, will make a final decision on whether to hold a court martial.
"I recommend trial by a general court martial," Reinert said a day after ending the investigation at Camp Arifjan, a U.S. military base 60 km (37 miles) south of Kuwait City.
Reporters watched the proceedings, held in Kuwait rather than Iraq due to security concerns, on closed-circuit television.
"There was no evidence that the accused was not mentally responsible at the time of the crimes," Reinert said. "There is reasonable grounds to believe he (Martinez) committed the offences alleged... there is reasonable cause to believe he had the motive and the opportunity to commit these offences."
Martinez was charged with the premeditated murder of company commander Captain Phillip Esposito and Lieutenant Louis Allen in a blast in Iraq on June 7. All three served in the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry Division, a reserve unit drawn from the New York Army National Guard.
The murder, which took place in one of ousted President Saddam Hussein's palaces in Tikrit, was the first of its kind among U.S. troops in Iraq, where insurgents are inflicting almost daily losses on Iraqi and foreign forces.
During the probe, the prosecutors said a capital court martial -- a tribunal that could hand down a death sentence -- should try the case since the crime was committed at a time of war but the defense disagreed, saying the United States was not engaged in hostile activities in Iraq.
Crime In Time Of War
Reinert, who listened to the testimony of nine prosecution witnesses, said he had based his recommendation on several factors including that the blast endangered the lives of other people and that the offence was carried out at a time of war.
He said Martinez knew the victims were commissioned officers and recommended Martinez be charged on four additional counts including the use of a weapon of mass destruction against a U.S. citizen abroad and larceny.
Initially, it was thought a mortar round killed the men.
An ordnance expert who inspected the site of the blast had told the probe that he had seen the remains of a Claymore mine in Esposito's room along with hand grenade spoons. As a supply sergeant, Martinez had access to such weapons.
Military legal expert Major Matthew Ruzicka said testimony showed that Esposito had relieved Martinez of his duties as a supply sergeant and that relations between them were sour.
One witness had quoted Martinez as telling him on two occasions: "I am going to frag (kill) him (Esposito)", but the defense said these comments were of a "venting nature" only.
Martinez is being held in a military jail in Kuwait.
In April, U.S. Sergeant Hasan Akbar was convicted of murdering two officers by rolling grenades into their tents in Kuwait on the eve of the invasion that toppled Saddam. Akbar has since been sentenced to death, the first U.S. soldier convicted of murdering a colleague in war since Vietnam. |
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