Hamdaniya trials

[CommunityEditor]

A year after he was charged with murdering an Iraqi man in Hamdaniya, Iraq, a corporal will face a military jury at Camp Pendleton, Calif., starting Monday in the first of three trials in the case.

The general court-martial of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, who was with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, is scheduled to begin Monday before military judge Lt. Col. David Jones, after a jury panel is chosen and opening statements are made in a case expected to last two weeks. Thomas and his attorneys were in court Friday for a hearing to consider additional motions.

Thomas, who has been confined to the brig since he and seven squad members were sent back from Iraq in late May 2006, is charged with unpremeditated murder, conspiracy, larceny, housebreaking, kidnapping, assault and making a false official statement in the April 26, 2006, death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a 52-year-old retired policeman.

Thomas goes on trial nearly six months after he had agreed to plead guilty to the charges, but then withdrew that plea, and instead argued in court that he was following orders when he and his squad mates killed Awad.

Five other members of the squad originally charged in the case have since pleaded guilty to lesser charges in deals with prosecutors and are serving their sentences, which range from 12 months to eight years. One of them, a Navy corpsman, already has completed his sentence.

In court testimonies, several squad members said they had agreed to a plan by squad leader Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III to grab and shoot a local suspected insurgent named Saleh Gowad, who they believed participated in attacks against the Marines.

When they didn’t find Gowad at his house in the early hours of April 26, 2006, several of them went into another house and grabbed Awad, bound him and dragged him into a hole on a nearby street, according to court documents. Several of them fired their weapons at him and, at one point, they testified, Hutchins and Thomas walked up to Awad and fired several rounds into him at close range in what several members described as a “dead check.” They radioed to their higher command that they had come under fire from a man digging a roadside bomb and killed him.

Trials for Hutchins and Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda are scheduled for later this month.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20..._trial_070708/

[The Universal Curmudgeon_guest]

Originally Posted by CommunityEditor

Thomas goes on trial nearly six months after he had agreed to plead guilty to the charges, but then withdrew that plea, and instead argued in court that he was following orders when he and his squad mates killed Awad.

Some people just don't know when they are well off.

Hopefully the court will take into account the fact (as evidence by his change in plea) that he is barely smart enough to clean his butt after taking a dump - provided that someone reminds him to do it and points out where his butt is - when they sentence him.

Didn't he realize (or weren't his lawyers smart enough to pound it through his thick skull) that "I was only following orders." is the legal equivalent of "Yes I did it. Now here's why you should exercise your discretion not to punish me for doing it."?

In this case, the POLITICAL ramifications of the case are such that the POLITICAL fallout from exercising that discretionary power would be disasterous.

Think about it. How would you feel if you were an Iraqi and you learned that American soldiers could take an innocent person out, kill them, lie about what they did, fabricate evidence, and then get off simply because they said that they were told to do it by some superior officer that no one seems able to identify with any certainty? Would you feel more - or less - kindly disposed towards your "liberators"?

[CommunityEditor]

Update: Hamdaniya Marine convicted of conspiracy (http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...thomas_070718/)


A military jury convicted a Marine Wednesday of conspiring to murder an Iraqi man in a bungled attempt to abduct and kill a suspected insurgent in Hamdaniya.

Cpl. Trent Thomas, 25, was the first of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman to go to trial in the killing that squad members tried to cover up by planting a gun near the victim after he was gunned down in a ditch.

[VetsHomeCA]

This concerns the Pendleton trials and all interested parties; especially the trial lawyers! Recommend you view the movie "Breaker Morant" and listen closely, and carefully, to the defense lawyer's closing! The time frame is 1902. The "insurgency" involves the Boer "war" with the British "Empire" (Read Australians).
See the "political" ramifications!

[The Universal Curmudgeon_guest]

Originally Posted by CommunityEditor

Update: Hamdaniya Marine convicted of conspiracy

They really came down heavy on him when the scolded him and told him to go home to his wife and kiddies and to never, never, never join the US military again.

[VetsHomeCA]

How does "that" comment relate to the "Breaker Morant" closing argument? Hope you're military, or former; who has beeni in the shit!

I don't think that any American service member that is serving over in that "hell hole"should be brought up on charges of killing Iraqis. None of those Iraqi'a will ever go to trial for killing innocent Americans with IEDs and anything else they can think of.

Yes "following orders" is an admission of guilt, but this is what our Soldiers are taught the minute they come into the Military. "Listen Up and follow orders". I am so glad that this yourg Marine stood up and changed his plea. He would have been serving time behind bars for serving his country. Too bad the others were too scared to speak up. I pray that he is back with his family soon and does not suffer any lingering illnesses from this war that was thrust upon him. The government will not go out of their way to get him the help he needs I'm sure.

[VetsHomeCA]

Unregistered:
Semper Fi....! Big guy; whoever you are!
I still would like the first responder to watch the defense council's closing argument in "Breaker Morant";
(1902 "Boer" Insurgency)!

It is a shame that soldiers sometimes are the ones that are the scap goats. He did carry out orders as directed. To the individual that stated he more or less is a moran well, that is your opion. What did you do for your country? Our young soldiers are in a Hostile Environment, with no freindlies around. Fear drives these soldiers sometimes to the point that accidents happen. Don't give me that crap about wiping his bottom side if he can find it. How dare you to say that about one of our "Warriors" who stand duty on the wall every day and night while your ass slepts comfortably in your bed not having to worry about insergents shooting at you, laying IED'S in the road on your journeys etc. If you think this soldier committed a crime that is your opinion, in mine I would give them all repremand, some sort of probation, suspend the probation, give them an Accomedation medal, commend them on a job well done and send them back out. Let our soldiers start kicking some real ass and the hell with the Politicians War and if THEY don't like it, let them pick up arms and join us in the Sand Box............................................... ...

[CommunityEditor]

Update: Closing arguments today in 2 Hamdaniya cases (http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...daniya_070731/)


Fifteen months after they were pulled from the battlefield to stand trial in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man, the fate of two Marines will be handed to a military jury.

Closing arguments were expected Tuesday at the courts-martial of Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III and Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, who are charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and other offenses.

They face life in prison without parole.

Hutchins, 23, of Plymouth, Mass., and Magincalda, 24, of Manteca, are the last of a squad of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman to be charged in the April 26, 2006, slaying of a man identified by prosecutors as an innocent father of 11.