Jury convicts fugitive Marine
June 10,2005
ROSELEE PAPANDREA
DAILY NEWS STAFF
http://www.jdnews.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=32452&Section=News
It took a military jury almost two and a half hours at a Camp Lejeune court-martial Thursday to find Marine Lance Cpl. Frederico Pimienta guilty of involuntary manslaughter and giving a false report.
The jury will sentence Pimienta today for shooting and killing 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Russell White on June 20, 2004, in Afghanistan. He could face up to 15 years in prison and dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corps.
Pimienta, who was last seen Monday, wasn't present for the court-martial or the verdict. Military judge Col. Stephen Day considered Pimienta's absence voluntary and continued the trial without him, despite objections from Capt. Brandon Bolling, the defense counsel.
A federal warrant was issued for his arrest, and authorities continue to search for Pimienta, who is from New Jersey.
Pimienta was also found not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment for allegedly pointing his loaded 9 mm Beretta in another Marine's face. The incident allegedly occurred a few weeks prior to the killing, in which White was shot in the head.
In closing arguments Thursday morning, prosecutor Maj. Stephen Keane said Pimienta violated the four safety rules in handling his weapon: treat every gun as if it is loaded, never point it, keep your finger off the trigger and keep it safe until you intend to shoot.
"Four simple rules," Keane said. "Elementary. If the accused had followed just one of them, Lance Cpl. White's life wouldn't have been erased. Instead, Lance Cpl. White's life has been robbed from him."
Pimienta, White and Lance Cpl. Stephen Groover, machine gunners in 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, were all good friends while deployed to Afghanistan last year.
On the day of the shooting, they spent 12 hours on guard duty. Following that shift, the squad gathered to get their mail - White received a care package from home - and several Marines hurried to use the few phones available to call home because it was Father's Day.
White, Groover and Pimienta then guarded the weapons in their hut while the rest of their squad showered. Groover and Pimienta were cleaning their guns on their cots and talking to White, who was tossing the Nerf football he received in the package. Shortly after, White was struck in the head by a bullet from Pimienta's 9 mm Beretta, according to testimony.
Several corpsmen were called immediately. Pimienta and Groover left the hut, and Pimienta asked Groover to lie for him because he didn't want to go to jail. Groover said he couldn't do that. Prior to the shooting, Pimienta had been counseled by supervisors to quit playing with the 9 mm Beretta, which he twirled around his finger, pulled out of his holster cowboy-style, and loaded and unloaded constantly, according to testimony.
"If he had only treated his weapon as if it was loaded like each and every one of us is trained to do over and over," Keane said in his closing argument. "â?¦ This was no mistake - no accident. He knew the rules. He was put on notice: Stop doing that. You will hurt somebody."
Bolling recognized that White's death was tragic but didn't consider Pimienta's actions to be criminal.
"Lance Cpl. White unfortunately was killed by a gunshot wound," Bolling said. "The pistol that killed him was assigned to Lance Cpl. Pimienta. We know the pistol was functioning. That's all we know."
Groover testified that while he was in the hut, he didn't look up until after the shot was fired. He didn't see what happened.
There just wasn't enough evidence to convict Pimienta, Bolling said.
"There can be no justice in convicting someone of a crime without sufficient proof a crime has been committed," Bolling said. "Lance Cpl. Pimienta is not guilty."
agh..all this writer had to do was look at Maj. Keane's quotes in this article, to realize that Marines have weapons, rifles, pistols...but not guns.
Pimienta sounds pretty pathetic as a Marine. I wonder how many times along the way he should have been screened out and sent home for good. A time or two described here suggests he went through every aspect of firearms training completely unscathed by additional knowledge.
as sergeant stryker said on "sands of iwo jima": life is tough; it's tougher if you're stupid. this kid, unfortunately, falls into that category.
This Bolling guy is an idiot. A lying idiot.