Posted on 04/26/2005 4:49:47 PM PDT by Dubya
FORT HOOD0 -- An Army soldier backed out of a plea agreement Tuesday and pleaded innocent to murdering an Iraqi civilian while searching for insurgents who attacked a U.S. base north of Baghdad.
Staff Sgt. Shane Werst, 32, also pleaded innocent to an obstruction of justice charge for allegedly lying to his superiors about how Naser Ismail died in Balad in January 2004.
Neither Werst nor his attorneys would comment about the plea deal reached in March or why they rejected it at Tuesday's arraignment. His trial was set for May 23, the date that had been scheduled for sentencing.
Werst said in court that he wanted a military jury rather than a judge to decide his murder case. The jury must have at least five members, a third of them enlisted personnel.
If convicted, Werst, of El Toro, Calif., faces a maximum punishment of life in a military prison without chance of parole.
Werst was a combat engineer with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Carson, Colo., part of the Fort Hood-based 4th Infantry Division. He and other soldiers raided houses after a mortar attack killed Capt. Eric Paliwoda, a company commander in the 4th Engineer Battalion, the same unit to which Werst was assigned.
A soldier in Werst's squad who had been in counseling later told Army investigators that after Ismail was identified as a possible insurgent, the Iraqi was taken to an isolated area, punched repeatedly by the two soldiers and then shot by Werst.
The soldier said Werst then planted a handgun on the dead man to make the shooting appear as self-defense, according to previous court testimony. Werst was charged in November. His attorneys have requested that soldier's medical files.
The military judge, Col. Theodore Dixon, said Tuesday that one of the witnesses in Werst's trial would be 1st Lt. Jack Saville, who pleaded guilty to assault and other charges last month and was sentenced to 45 days in prison for forcing three Iraqis into the Tigris River, including one who allegedly drowned.
Saville's co-defendant in the river case, Staff Sgt. Tracy Perkins, was acquitted in January of manslaughter but convicted of assault and obstruction of justice. Perkins was sentenced to six months.
So that would be one and two-thirds enlisted members.
We seem to have a huge problem when it comes to killing the enemy. We are pc'ing our army into a bunch of U.N woosies.
How does one contribute to his defense?
Is it possible to allegedly drown?
Allegedly because they don't know if the guy drowned. No body. Only the word of people who may hate America. The three were caught out in violation of curfew. Probably terrs.
Neither "W" nor Rumsfeld will step up to the plate and put an end to this type of non-stop prosecution of our troops for mostly imagined offenses.
"W"s second term is turning our military into Hillary's punching bag after G.W. has gotten all of the mileage he can from kicking it around.
ha yeah totally, what about the rights of low ranking soldiers to summarily execute suspected enemies and plant evidence?
What the h*ll are you talking about? Plant evidence? Joemoe, you have obviously NEVER been in or near military.
did you read the article?
Yea..I read the article..."He and other soldiers raided houses after a mortar attack killed Capt. Eric Paliwoda, a company commander in the 4th Engineer Battalion, the same unit to which Werst was assigned. "
i meant this: "The soldier said Werst then planted a handgun on the dead man to make the shooting appear as self-defense, according to previous court testimony. Werst was charged in November. His attorneys have requested that soldier's medical files."
i wont defend that kind of action.
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