Expert: Hamdaniya Marine may have brain injury - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Expert: Hamdaniya Marine may have brain injury

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Repeated exposure to bomb blasts may have impaired the judgment a Marine corporal charged with kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi civilian, an expert in war-related brain injuries told a military judge and jury Monday.

Attorneys for Cpl. Trent D. Thomas rested their case after calling testimony intended to show that the Marine was suffering from traumatic brain injury that impeded his ability to say no when his squad leader ordered him to snatch the man from his home in Anbar province.

Thomas, who was on his third combat tour in Iraq, had been exposed to more than 25 bomb blasts that would have “rung his bell,” said Maria Mouratidis, head of the traumatic stress and brain injury program at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Shock waves from such explosions can shred neurons in the brain, causing damage that may lead to difficulty making decisions, processing information quickly, and overriding impulsive responses, especially in high-pressured environments, Mouratidis said.

“Corporal Thomas would have difficulty with decision-making, problem-solving and especially with coming up with different solutions in a high-pressure atmosphere,” Mouratidis said. “The evidence suggests that he would be very susceptible to influence and have difficulty seeing other options.”

Mouratidis told the judge her testimony was based on a review of Thomas’ medical records.

Thomas, a 25-year-old infantryman, is in the second week of a court-martial that would result in a mandatory life sentence if he is convicted of murder.

According to prosecutors, Thomas and seven other men on a nighttime patrol in the village of Hamdaniya hatched a plan to kidnap a suspected insurgent from his home and kill him. When they couldn’t find the intended victim, Thomas, the senior corporal in the squad and a fireteam leader, led a four-man team to a nearby house, where they snatched a man identified as Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a retired police officer, instead.

Thomas, a St. Louis-area native, is charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, making a false official statement, larceny and housebreaking.

He pleaded guilty in January as part of a pretrial agreement. But on the eve of his sentencing, having already given details of his involvement in the killing, he withdrew his plea.

Thomas’ attorneys said at the time that their client had an “epiphany” before he changed his plea to not guilty. Thomas claimed he had been following what he perceived to be a lawful order.

Military prosecutors objected to the expert testimony about Thomas’ mental state, arguing that Thomas should be ordered to testify himself. Jones said he would not require Thomas to testify.

Judge Lt. Col. David Jones allowed Mouratidis and an expert in post-traumatic stress disorder, Capt. Thomas A. Grieger, to testify but ordered them not to paraphrase statements Thomas had made to his doctors and restricted any testimony regarding explicit links between Thomas’ alleged actions and a traumatic brain injury because the field is still relatively new.

Grieger told the jury he believed Thomas showed signs of recovering successfully from mild post-traumatic stress disorder, which in some cases can inspire a heightened feeling of being threatened.

Thomas’ court-martial is the first trial among seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged in Awad’s death. Four Marines and the sailor have already pleaded guilty to reduced charges and sentenced to between one and eight years in the brig.

Those troops testified that several squad members took Awad to a ditch then shot him to death. In an attempt to cover up the killing, they said they placed a shovel and AK-47 by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent who was digging a hole to plant a bomb.

The men who pleaded guilty have pointed to the squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, as the mastermind. Hutchins’ court-martial is expected to start later this month.

Charges against the Marine squad came as another Camp Pendleton unit was under investigation in the killing of 24 civilians in Hadithah. Three Marines have been charged with murder in that case and four officers charged with failing to investigate those deaths.

Previous stories:

* Cpl. testifies officers wanted harsher tactics

* Iraq criminal cases converge at Camp Pendleton

* Squad members take stand in Hamdaniya case

* Hamdaniya trial begins; prosecution slams cpl.