Posted on 06/10/2007 12:25:50 PM PDT by RedRover
YaSHEKIA SMALLS, Tribune Staff Writer
Five days after a hearing began at Camp Pendleton, Calif., for a former Granger resident -- who faces murder charges in a 2005 squad action that killed 24 Iraqi civilians -- his father feels nothing short of elated.
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, who graduated from Penn High School in 2003, faces three counts of unpremeditated murder stemming from the controversial Nov. 19, 2005, killings in Haditha. He was one of eight Marines to face charges in the civilian deaths.
But after hearing testimony during this week's Article 32 hearing -- which began Monday and was expected to end Friday, with this upcoming Monday also remaining open -- father Darryl and mother Theresa Sharratt couldn't be more confident that charges against their son will be dropped. Sharratt's hearing initially was set for April but was postponed until this month.
"Everything shows that Justin should be exonerated," Pennsylvania native Theresa Sharratt told The Tribune Friday morning from her hotel room in the Camp Pendleton area.The Article 32 hearing is similar to a probable cause hearing in civilian court. Darryl Sharratt said that after the hearing, investigating officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware is supposed to present a report to Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who decides whether to drop charges against Sharratt or proceed to a court-martial. If convicted, Sharratt could face life in prison.
"The military justice system is a slow-moving animal," Darryl Sharratt said before Friday's hearing, "and it could be days, it could be weeks or months until we truly find out the disposition of this case."
Sharratt, 22, on Thursday gave an unsworn statement -- after which he could not be cross-examined -- in which he acknowledged shooting several men, including one in the head, according to the Associated Press.
Sharratt's statement followed testimony by former Lance Cpl. Trent Graviss, who said the Marines were not under machine-gun fire from insurgents when they committed the killings, the Associated Press reported. U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., last year also alleged that the Marines had acted "in cold blood."
The incident started when a roadside bomb exploded and killed a Marine. Aside from Sharratt and two others who are charged with murder (prosecutors dismissed charges against a fourth enlisted man), four officers are charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the killings. But sister Jaclyn Sharratt, who lives in Chicago and could not attend her brother's hearing this week, said several witnesses have argued that the three Marines charged with murder were under attack, contrary to Graviss' testimony, and that the Marines responded as they were trained to do.
"You have to stay positive in it no matter what," Jaclyn Sharratt, 25, said, "and our attorneys are doing so wonderful."
Darryl Sharratt on Friday said forensic evidence introduced this week by Air Force Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse and Naval Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent Michael Maloney proved his longtime conviction: It did not appear that the three men Sharratt is accused of murdering in an Iraqi home were killed at close range, and the bullets he fired fell exactly where he had testified in his statement.
"We are very happy about this testimony," Darryl Sharratt said. "The two forensics evidence showed that the Marines did not lie about what happened."
The Sharratt family's defense counsel in the largest U.S. criminal case of the Iraq War includes civilian attorney Gary Myers and Maj. Brian Cosgrove. The family set up a Web site filled with photos and blogs months ago in support of Justin Sharratt.Coney Express in Mishawaka also is collecting donations for the former Granger resident. The eatery has gathered a little more than $250 during the past month or so, said 21-year-old Jamie Bonder, who graduated with Sharratt from Penn High School and whose mother, Marilyn, owns the restaurant.
"Very relieved," Jamie Bonder said of how this week's hearing has turned out. "I've been keeping up in the readings. ... I've been very happy with what they've said so far."
CAMP PENDLETON — On a parade deck and in a courtroom on opposite sides of this sprawling base, the discussion Friday was of violent death in Iraq.
Eight Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment who were killed during a recent deployment in Iraq were remembered at a memorial service as "truly Magnificent Bastards," a reference to the battalion's nickname.
They were killed in various assaults by insurgents — small-arms fire, roadside bombings and suicide car attacks — in the Al Anbar province towns of Rutbah, Ramadi and Barwana.
"None of them died alone," said battalion commander Lt. Col. James Glynn to the family members, friends and Marines who attended the service. "None of them feared their fate. Day after day, they understood the risks of the mission."
The several hundred people at the service included 42 relatives of Lance Cpl. Emilian D. Sanchez, 20, who was killed during a firefight in Rutbah. They had traveled to Camp Pendleton in 10 vehicles from two Indian reservations in New Mexico: Santa Ana Pueblo and Sandia Pueblo.
"He was so full of life," said Berna Sanchez, the lance corporal's sister, her voice broken with sobbing. "He had so much love, especially for his nieces and nephews. When he joined the Marine Corps, he said he wanted to make the world a better place for them."
Also killed in Iraq were Cpl. Dustin Libby, Lance Cpl. Andrew Matus, Lance Cpl. Anthony Melia, Cpl. Richard Quill III, Sgt. Maj. Joseph Ellis, Sgt. Clinton Ahlquist and Lance Cpl. Steven M. Chavez.
In the hours before the memorial service, prosecutors and defense attorneys made their final arguments in the Article 32 preliminary hearing of Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, who is accused of murdering three Iraqi brothers in Haditha in late 2005.
The accusations against Sharratt are part of the largest case of alleged war atrocities levied against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan: Four officers and three enlisted Marines, all from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, are accused in the killings of 24 civilians in Haditha.
After prosecutors made their final pitch to have the case against Sharratt go to court-martial, hearing officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware said he was strongly leaning against making such a recommendation.
He peppered the prosecutors with questions and comments that suggested the charges did not fit the evidence and that the prosecution would have a case only if Iraqi witnesses traveled to Camp Pendleton and testified — which so far they have been unwilling to do.
"You have no trial if none of these people will come to this country to testify," Ware told the prosecutors.
The Iraqis, in a group interview with Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents who went to Haditha, alleged that Sharratt and another Marine forced four brothers into a back bedroom at gunpoint and executed them.
Sharratt insisted that he acted in self-defense — that he was searching the house for insurgents when two of the brothers, hiding in a bedroom, confronted him with AK47s, which forced him to use his 9-millimeter gun.
Ware will forward his recommendation to Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis, commanding general of the Marine Forces Central Command.
The five-day Article 32 hearing was rife with disagreements about forensic evidence, various witnesses' credibility and the thoroughness of the investigators' work.
But there was one point that prosecutors, defense attorneys and the hearing officer agreed on. No one at the memorial service would have argued about it either.
"Sir," defense attorney James Culp told Ware, "people die in war."
Just so you know, my work plan is to compile the Sharratt hearing summary by tonight. Then I'll post the main thread for the Lt Grayson hearing tomorrow. That one has promise for some comic value as personnel officers try to explain how they discharged the lieutenant by mistake!
I'll post it later tonight.
Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2007
CAMP PENDLETON — A Marine lance corporal accused of executing three unarmed Iraqi brothers in Haditha told a hearing officer Thursday that he killed them after two of them pointed AK-47s at him while he searched their home for insurgents.
"I kept firing until my magazine was empty because I didn't know if they had body armor or suicide vests," Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt told the hearing officer at his Article 32 inquiry, similar to a preliminary hearing. "As I fired at the other insurgents in the room, I felt as though they were coming toward me."
The statement was unsworn, and thus Sharratt was not required to answer questions from prosecutors.
Sharratt, 22, whose family lives in suburban Pittsburgh, said he opened fire instantly after seeing the AK-47s. Sharratt said his machine gun jammed and that he then used a 9-millimeter handgun he had borrowed from a Navy corpsman.
"There's an old saying among Marines," he told hearing officer Lt. Col. Paul Ware. " 'I'd rather be judged by 12 of my peers instead of being carried in a casket by six of my friends.' "
Once the hearing is completed, Ware will recommend to Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis whether the case should go to court-martial, be dismissed or be handled administratively. Four officers and three enlisted Marines have been charged in the November 2005 killings of 24 civilians in Haditha.
"We did not execute any Iraqi males," Sharratt said in a strong, clear voice. "I am a disciplined Marine…. On Nov. 19, I did exactly as I was trained to do."
Prosecutors assert that the three Iraqi men were unarmed and that Sharratt and Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich killed them at close range without provocation.
Sharratt said he gave the AK-47s to a Marine the day of the incident. But testimony indicated that there was no clear record of the weapons being recovered at the house, although records do show two AK-47s being recovered somewhere in the neighborhood that day.
Prosecutors also assert that because the Iraqis were slain with a handgun, the killings were "execution-style," because troops rarely use handguns when assaulting houses. But a military pathologist said pictures of the dead men did not suggest that the fatal bullets were fired at close enough range to show the powder burns consistent with such a mode of killing.
Sharratt said he and other Marines went to "clear" the house after seeing male Iraqis repeatedly peeking at them over a wall. Marines said they thought the Iraqis might have been responsible for a roadside bomb that had exploded beneath a Marine convoy, killing one Marine and wounding two others.
At first, the clearing of houses went smoothly, Sharratt told Ware. Then in one house, he said, he heard in a back bedroom the distinct sound of AK-47s being prepared to fire.
"I knew if there were insurgents inside that room with weapons, … I had to move fast to establish fire superiority."
He told Ware that he would act the same today if put in the same situation.
"I will always be proud of my service in Iraq," he said. "And I will always be proud to be a Marine."
Sharratt was on his second combat tour in Iraq with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. He received a combat action ribbon for his role in the battle in Fallouja in late 2004; the ribbon, at that time, was awarded only to Marines who came under fire and returned fire.
His parents, Theresa and Darryl Sharratt, have attended the hearing. The session Thursday involved several hours of testimony from a pathologist about the fatal wounds to the Iraqis; close-up pictures of the bodies were shown.
Theresa Sharratt said the pictures did not shake her faith in her son's innocence.
"Here's the way I look at it," she told a reporter. "Those men were trying to kill my son. I'd rather get a phone call [from him saying he's facing criminal charges] than have two Marines coming to my door telling me my son is dead."
Red, excellent summary of the hearing. I don’t know how you do it. Thank you for your support of my family and my Marine son, L/Cpl Justin Sharratt
God Bless Our Haditha Marines
HAPPY DAD’S DAY, DARRYL!
That looks really good to me, Red. Good job!
Thanks, jaz! It’ll mean updating it every once in a while. Is that okay with you on your end of the operation?
No problem at all, it only takes a couple minutes. I like the way you laid this out, it gives more info.
Great! Then we’re in biz!
It’s like you invented a Haditha score card. Thanks, I tend to lose track of it all once in awhile.
BTW, I tilted the photo of Lt. Grayson and cropped it so it doesn’t look as casual.
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