[Girlene]

The story that Dela Cruz tells is just becoming pathetic in my opinion. He tries to provide pre-meditation with this story from Squad mate says Marine planned Iraq killings

"“If we ever get hit again, we should kill everyone in that vicinity,” Sgt. Frank Wuterich allegedly told his men, according to testimony Wednesday by one of his former squad mates, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who was a corporal at the time.

okay......then, he says this

When Dela Cruz exited his vehicle he saw a group of Iraqi men standing in front of a white car parked on the road. A couple had their hands up in the air or locked behind their heads, he told the court. Then one dropped to the ground.

Wuterich had taken a knee and was pointing his gun at the men, Dela Cruz said. He assumed his squad leader had seen something threatening and was shooting, so Dela Cruz opened fire.

Later, Dela Cruz performs a dead check and admits to urinating on one of the deceased.

And SSgt Wuterich is going down for the deaths of these five? mmmm...mmmm.mmmm.

THe original charges also included Dela Cruz saying that Wuterich tried to get Dela Cruz to lie about what went down that day (obstruction).....So Dela Cruz tries to provide premeditation, the actual murder/manslaughter, then the coverup or obstruction (even thought that's been thrown out at this point because of procedural errors). All Dela Cruz needed was a tidy bow to wrap this package up real purty.

THese prosecutors, Gannon and THE Sean Sullivan, just aren't that smart, IMO.

[Lancey Howard]

Dela Cruz promised to say anything the prosecutors wanted him to say in exchange for his “deal”.
I suspect the defense will tear him to shreds.

[smoothsailing]

“It was all a made-up story, sir,” he said. “It was lies.”

Right, but it was a story made up by Dela Cruz, and no one else.

[xzins]

Dela Cruz, an E-4 at the time, blames an E-5 for saying he wants to clean up an area if they get hit there again. He claims a “verbatim memory” of what was said word-for-word. I don’t believe him. I’ve had classes on doing case-study verbatims, and I never get it right. Ever.

Just speaking for myself, if I were continually being hit in a particular location, I’d probably at some point ponder about it a bit and say we need to take action to clean the place up.

The corporal goes on to indicate he was the main trigger in killing the men around the white car. But he lays that on his E-5, too.

Then this corporal urinates on a dead man. ??? From the get-go that indicates some kind of problem to this retired chaplain.

[RedRover]

It's all too short, but Nat has a new piece up on DOM.

My favorite part, "Plagued with a terrible memory, the inability to articulate his thoughts, and a deer-in-the headlights demeanor, Dela Cruz didn’t seem to reinforce Sullivan’s case."

Camp Pendleton, Calif. – Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz, a battle-rattled combat Marine who made a deal with the government to avoid court martial for murder, testified Wednesday morning that he saw Staff Sergeant Frank D. Wuterich shoot five unarmed Iraqi men after a roadside bomb exploded in Haditha in November 2005.

It is either the fourth or fifth version of his observations since he failed a polygraph, and then elected to accept immunity from prosecution, counting the two versions he presented at trial today. (More at the LINK).