Posted on 10/06/2006 10:43:07 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
CAMP PENDLETON ---- A Navy corpsman pleaded guilty this morning to two charges for his role in the killing of a 52-year-old civilian in the Iraqi village of Hamdania last spring.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos pleaded guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping during a court-martial conducted in a base courtroom before Marine Col. Steven Folsom. Charges of premeditated murder and related offenses were dropped in exchange for the guilty pleas.
Bacos is the first of the eight troops from 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment's Kilo Company to plead guilty to an offense arising out of the April 26 slaying of Hashim Ibrahim Awad. As part of his plea deal, the 21-year-old native of Franklin, Wis., agreed to testify against seven Marines also charged in the case.
Under questioning from Folsom, Bacos described how a plan devised under the direction of squad Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III targeted a man named Saleh Gowad, whom Bacos said was a known insurgent who had been arrested and released by authorities three times.
The plan was hatched in a palm grove in Hamdania around sunset on April 25 while the squad was on patrol, Bacos said, adding he initially did not believe the men would actually do what was being suggested.
If Gowad wasn't home, Bacos said the plan was to go to another house and take another individual. That led the squad to Awad's home, Bacos said.
Each of the accused agreed to the plan by saying "I'm in" or "let's do it," Bacos told the judge.
Bacos acknowledged his role in the plan was to help steal an AK-47 assault rifle and shovel, and to help seize Awad after it was determined that Gowad ---- the squad's original target ---- wasn't home.
He also admitted firing rounds from the AK-47 into the air after Awad had been bound and shot multiple times. The shell casings from the rounds he fired were intended to make it appear that Awad was planting a roadside bomb when he was killed, Bacos said.
The kidnapping and killing occurred around 1:30 a.m., after Bacos and two of his squad mates stole the AK-47 and a shovel and then went to Awad's house and seized him, he told the judge.
Bacos said Cpl. Trent Thomas and Cpl. Marshall Magincalda Jr. emerged from a house with Awad.
When asked by Folsom why, Bacos said Hutchins had directed another be seized.
"If we could not get Saleh Gowad, we would find someone else," Bacos said.
At midmorning, Bacos was continuing his account of what happened. Under terms of the plea deal, it is expected that Bacos will serve no more than 12 months in custody.
His wife, Heather and his father, Jessie, sat in the first row of seats behind the corpsman, who was dressed in his summer white Navy uniform.
Until this morning, the accused stood together for five months, each denying through attorneys and family members that they had done anything wrong despite being charged with premeditated murder and other offenses in the death of an Iraqi man.
Bacos and another of the accused, Pfc. John Jodka III, who was raised in Encinitas, have been moved from the Camp Pendleton brig to the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, a signal that a plea deal may also be in the works for Jodka.
Military law experts have previously said they believed it was just a matter of time before one of the accused men took a plea deal.
Kathleen Duignan of the Institute of Military Justice in Washington said Thursday that the plea deal creates new challenges for attorneys defending the other men.
"It makes it much more difficult for the defense counsel," she said in a telephone interview. "The best part for the defense from the beginning of this case was that the men were standing together, and now that has gone away."
The defense attorneys have an obligation to get the best deal they can for their clients if the facts indicate they are likely to be convicted, she said.
"I think you'll see more deals after this, probably from a couple of the others who are less culpable."
The case continues to attract widespread media attention. More than a dozen reporters and numerous camera crews were covering Friday's proceedings, which were broadcast via closed-circuit television into a more than $700,000 media center the Marine Corps established this summer in a former barracks adjacent to the building housing the courtroom.
more like when they are handcuffed for 23 hours a day.
Generally, people don't lie to the point of getting a felony conviction.
After all who would believe a murderer.
If a murderer tells me he participated in a murder, then I'm likely to believe him.
It was built this summer; it was POM'd years ago.
I don't know, you sound like some of the other posters here. How the hell am I supposed to know what kind of machinations are going on inside the military establishment here. Who are Murtha's pentagon contacts? he certainly has them, who are they? I don't know, but just because I don't know their names, doesn't mean I can't comment on the fact that they exist. who authorized $700K be spent on the media theatre for the trial, in the middle of a war when funding for supplies is allegedly very tight - someone at DoD approves $700K for a viewing room for the trial for the press. How many body armor suits for Marines could have been purchased with that $700K?
and look, isn't it just a convenient coincidence that its ready to go this summer - just in time for this trial.
I do not KNOW if any of it is true but that could be said for every event in history except those that I witness.
You're saying that you do, until you say that you don't. You kin to John Kerry?
I don't know, but just because I don't know their names, doesn't mean I can't comment on the fact that they exist.
In other words, you never let ignorance get in the way of your rants.
who authorized $700K be spent on the media theatre for the trial,
Congress authorizes all expenditure of funds.
in the middle of a war when funding for supplies is allegedly very tight - someone at DoD approves $700K for a viewing room for the trial for the press.
Wrong. No wonder you believe in conspiracy theories like what you spout--you don't understand even simple things like how the federal government spends money. This room got into the POM years ago (MILCON POMs are generated about 4-5 years behind the actual FY funds are provided).
How many body armor suits for Marines could have been purchased with that $700K?
Zero. Wrong color of money. Congress would have to reprogram the funds from MILCON to OPMC.
You don't know who is in charge of the US Military.
I think its easy to cast stones at "they".
I do not KNOW if any of it is true but that could be said for every event in history except those that I witness.
And you have a felony record, meaning you can never hold a decent job, or get a prime mortgage, or vote, or own firearms, or travel outside the United States for any reason without a lot of advance work with the foreign country's embassy.
In short, "sign here and destroy your life."
They're right, we should never believe any confession, they could all be coerced--there's no way to prove they aren't! Let's just throw in the towel and stop trying to run a justice system. Mob rule has to work just about as well, don't you think?
I guess that every confession I heard as a cop is now null and void.
Yep, that's me, arch-member of about two gazillion "cabals."
I'm jealous, I'm only member of one.
Yes, I did. There are a couple of cops who did 10 apiece in San Quentin courtesy of me and my wire.
This deal stinks. Plain and simple.
And the specific facts of the case that lead you to this conclusion are _______________________. (Fill in the blank.)
Would you say the t-shirt said "Brave Heroes" in court. (when in fact it doesn't)
No. I have had to correct myself twice on the stand. In both cases, I clearly acknowledged my error (as I did in this case). In both cases, the jury returned convictions.
Why did they let Jon Bennet Ramsey's confessed killer go?
Because the physical evidence didn't line up with his confession.
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