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.
This is not good.
I still find it very hard to believe that a group of Marines conspired to pull some guy out of his house and execute him. Definitely doesn't pass the smell test.
Well with no autopsy, there shouldn't be a murder conviction.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
No, he confessed to committing specific acts in furtherance of a conspiracy, specific elements of the acts he confessed to matched specific evidence in hand, and other testimony he offered matches specific evidence in hand.
Lying during a plea deal is a really stupid thing to do. The more serious charges are dropped only on conviction of the other parties, so if the pleadant's testimony is impeached at trial, what he did cop to in order to receive leniency is quite sufficient to ensure that he would be convicted on accessory to murder.
Only if Bacos' testimony is successfully impeached--and if it is, what he copped to in this plea deal is enough for him to swing on the murder charges, which would be reinstated.
Well as one who interrogated VC & NVA in Nam in '69 & '70 and walked point for the 5th Marines and one who knows personally Marines who are in the 5th Marines serving in Iraq; I find this whole episode very hard to believe.
I remember one Marine making all kinds of accusations against Lt. Pantano; only to find out that the Marine making the accusations had a beef with Lt. Pantano.
Lt. Pantano was exonerated of all charges.
I will reserve judgment until all the facts are in.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
The armed forces--even the Marines--are a microcosm of the society they serve, because they come from that same society; and given how far notions of "right" and "wrong" have slid over my lifetime, I can believe it somewhat more easily.
Then again, I was a cop for the better part of a decade, so I can see what otherwise good people can persuade themselves to do.
He is also not exactly a man.
Will you still believe him if he gets out in 12 months for sqealing??
The charge of "conspiracy" is one of the most ridiculous in existence and should be eliminated. When the Feds have nothing else, they always use "conspiracy" to get ya.
His attorney should also be warning him that with what he has copped to, he WILL be found guilty of the murder charges if his testimony is impeached and his co-conspirators are acquitted.
The only way that happens is if his testimony survives cross-examination and his co-conspirators get acquitted.
I have all the respect in the world for the Navy Corpsman.
If not for a Corpsman, I WOULD NOT BE ALIVE TODAY!
And since we haven't seen the transcript of his testimony,
I will reserve judgment.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
No, I was Army.
Incidentally, a few highly-decorated Green Berets did this sort of thing during Vietnam, and they got convicted.
Eliteness is no safeguard in and of itself against criminal activity.
My Lai was an aberration.
If this happened as Bacos described, it also was an aberration. Aberrations are, by definition, aberrant and outside of the norm--but they do happen.
No sir, you definitely don't know these Marines personally. These are some of the finest Marines the Corps has ever produced.
As I mentioned earlier, not even highly-decorated Green Berets were immune to this. Part of it comes from what my grandfather's generation called "shell shock." Infantrymen are only good for about 200 days in theater, and then they start to degrade in various ways--they get sloppy, they take too many risks, or they start engaging in varying forms of "expedient" behavior.
One complaint I have with the present war is that we're still spending billions of dollars on high-tech toys for the kinds of wars the Pentagon wants to fight (F-22s, the new destroyer for the Navy, etc.) instead of raising at least four more divisions of infantry for the real, no-kidding fight we're in now, and the Army is suffering for it with battle-weary soldiers.
Many of these Marines serving in Iraq have received two and three PH's, multiple combat promotions and commendations and made two and three tours of duty.
And therein lies the issue: the Marine Corps finally got around to calling up one of my neighbors for duty in Iraq last month, his first activation since 9/11, while other Marines, active and reserve, have done multiple tours and have been stretched to the breaking point.
Should be "convicted" vs. acquitted. If his co-conspirators get acquitted, he's going to get hammered on the murder charges.
"have been stretched to the breaking point."
Bravo Sierra
Marines VOLUNTEER for return tours of combat.
I suggest you stick to what & who you know which obviously doesn't include the Marine Corps and Marines serving in Iraq.
Cyaaaaaaa
Who knows what this Navy Corpsman was put through to get him to roll.
Who knows who is the enemy over there better than the people that are right there.
Who can believe that 7 marines would conspire to kill an innocent..for what...kicks??
The whole thing stinks.
They were originally after someone else. He wasn't in the house, so they grabbed some guy they didn't even know.
Who knows who is the enemy over there better than the people that are right there.
They didn't know this guy from Adam.
Who can believe that 7 marines would conspire to kill an innocent..for what...kicks??
You do know that volunteer firefighters occasionally turn arsonist to be the hero, right?
but the Marines can't make a case against them - without caging them and handcuffing them 23 hours a day, until one of them finally broke.
gotta run...but I will answer you when I get back.
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