Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Antonio Express-News
May 1, 2008 By Scott Huddleston
FORT HOOD — A San Antonio soldier being tried on a murder charge said he made split-second decisions to protect himself and his troops when he shot a wounded insurgent last summer.
“It happened so quickly. It was just one of those split-second things,” Sgt. Leonard Treviño said while testifying for the first time in his court martial.
Defense lawyers who presented their case Wednesday said some blame in the incident last June 26 in Iraq may lie with a medic — another soldier from San Antonio — who didn’t treat the badly injured man.
During his more than three hours of testimony, Treviño described the early morning battle that led to the man’s death, and to the criminal charges, including premeditated murder, he now faces. He said he fired at the man twice, but denied that he ordered the medic to suffocate him.
He also disputed testimony from government witnesses that he planted a gun at the scene and lied to supervisors.
“All those shoots were legit. They were all within ROE (rules of engagement),” the 31-year-old Burbank High School graduate testified.
A seven-member jury will begin deliberating in the case today. The jury could hand Treviño a life sentence or convict him on a lesser charge.
Treviño said his Small Kill Team, an eight-member force tasked with slipping into the village of Thura to look for snipers or explosives, lost its “tactical posture” as soon as a firefight with three insurgents began before dawn.
When his team spotted three insurgents, one with an AK-47 and another with a grenade launcher, he told them to fire on the count of three. One soldier thought he’d told him to fire his M-203 rifle, and the team fired well over 250 rounds.
According to Treviño, Cpl. Justin Whiteman — who has provided crucial testimony against Treviño — compromised the team’s safety when he grabbed the insurgent’s Iraqi 9 mm pistol and fired it twice into his body.
The team followed drops of blood to a house where they found weapons, explosives and insurgent propaganda. After seizing the weapons, Treviño said, he and his men followed the blood to another house — the scene of the alleged murder. In one room was a second insurgent who’d been shot about a dozen times in the battle.
Treviño said Miller, Whiteman, a Kurdish interpreter and two Iraqi soldiers were kicking and hitting the man with their weapons, even though he hadn’t been checked for or cleared of explosives. The man was combative, and the Iraqi soldiers wanted to “finish him off,” Treviño said. Amid the chaos, someone said something about a gun and “watch it,” so he fired his M-4 rifle, he recalled.
“Out of reaction, I pulled the trigger,” he said.
He said he then asked, “Where’s the gun?”
Whiteman pulled out the Iraqi 9 mm, according to Treviño, and put it by the man. Treviño said he picked it up and told Whiteman to put it in a burlap bag with other confiscated weapons.
Treviño radioed for the medic, Spc. John Torres, also of San Antonio. Torres said the man was “not going to make it.”
Torres had testified Tuesday that Treviño ordered him to try to suffocate the man. Treviño denied that, and said Torres only jokingly mentioned smothering him so the team could wrap up its mission and return to its base, FOB Normandy.
As Torres walked out, Treviño said he saw something in the corner of his eye. The man’s arm suddenly jerked, possibly reaching for a weapon or perhaps exhibiting an involuntary muscle response of a near-lifeless body.
Treviño fired a round from his M-9 pistol. He said he doesn’t know if he hit the man.
“It happened so quickly. It was one of those split-second things,” he said.
It’s now up to a jury of three officers and four enlisted men, all with combat experience, to decide whom to believe.
Though Torres and Whiteman both have been acquitted on lesser charges, one defense witness said Torres could have defused the situation by treating the man with tourniquets, dressings and IV fluids.
“Spc. Torres had a responsibility to attempt to treat that casualty,” said Master Sgt. Tyrone Ward, chief acting medical non-commissioned officer with the 1st Cavalry Division.
May 1, 2008 By Scott Huddleston
FORT HOOD — A San Antonio soldier being tried on a murder charge said he made split-second decisions to protect himself and his troops when he shot a wounded insurgent last summer.
“It happened so quickly. It was just one of those split-second things,” Sgt. Leonard Treviño said while testifying for the first time in his court martial.
Defense lawyers who presented their case Wednesday said some blame in the incident last June 26 in Iraq may lie with a medic — another soldier from San Antonio — who didn’t treat the badly injured man.
During his more than three hours of testimony, Treviño described the early morning battle that led to the man’s death, and to the criminal charges, including premeditated murder, he now faces. He said he fired at the man twice, but denied that he ordered the medic to suffocate him.
He also disputed testimony from government witnesses that he planted a gun at the scene and lied to supervisors.
“All those shoots were legit. They were all within ROE (rules of engagement),” the 31-year-old Burbank High School graduate testified.
A seven-member jury will begin deliberating in the case today. The jury could hand Treviño a life sentence or convict him on a lesser charge.
Treviño said his Small Kill Team, an eight-member force tasked with slipping into the village of Thura to look for snipers or explosives, lost its “tactical posture” as soon as a firefight with three insurgents began before dawn.
When his team spotted three insurgents, one with an AK-47 and another with a grenade launcher, he told them to fire on the count of three. One soldier thought he’d told him to fire his M-203 rifle, and the team fired well over 250 rounds.
According to Treviño, Cpl. Justin Whiteman — who has provided crucial testimony against Treviño — compromised the team’s safety when he grabbed the insurgent’s Iraqi 9 mm pistol and fired it twice into his body.
The team followed drops of blood to a house where they found weapons, explosives and insurgent propaganda. After seizing the weapons, Treviño said, he and his men followed the blood to another house — the scene of the alleged murder. In one room was a second insurgent who’d been shot about a dozen times in the battle.
Treviño said Miller, Whiteman, a Kurdish interpreter and two Iraqi soldiers were kicking and hitting the man with their weapons, even though he hadn’t been checked for or cleared of explosives. The man was combative, and the Iraqi soldiers wanted to “finish him off,” Treviño said. Amid the chaos, someone said something about a gun and “watch it,” so he fired his M-4 rifle, he recalled.
“Out of reaction, I pulled the trigger,” he said.
He said he then asked, “Where’s the gun?”
Whiteman pulled out the Iraqi 9 mm, according to Treviño, and put it by the man. Treviño said he picked it up and told Whiteman to put it in a burlap bag with other confiscated weapons.
Treviño radioed for the medic, Spc. John Torres, also of San Antonio. Torres said the man was “not going to make it.”
Torres had testified Tuesday that Treviño ordered him to try to suffocate the man. Treviño denied that, and said Torres only jokingly mentioned smothering him so the team could wrap up its mission and return to its base, FOB Normandy.
As Torres walked out, Treviño said he saw something in the corner of his eye. The man’s arm suddenly jerked, possibly reaching for a weapon or perhaps exhibiting an involuntary muscle response of a near-lifeless body.
Treviño fired a round from his M-9 pistol. He said he doesn’t know if he hit the man.
“It happened so quickly. It was one of those split-second things,” he said.
It’s now up to a jury of three officers and four enlisted men, all with combat experience, to decide whom to believe.
Though Torres and Whiteman both have been acquitted on lesser charges, one defense witness said Torres could have defused the situation by treating the man with tourniquets, dressings and IV fluids.
“Spc. Torres had a responsibility to attempt to treat that casualty,” said Master Sgt. Tyrone Ward, chief acting medical non-commissioned officer with the 1st Cavalry Division.