Trial Starts For Marine Accused In Slaying

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Los Angeles Times
December 5, 2007 By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
CAMP PENDLETON -- The prosecution Tuesday portrayed a Marine charged with killing an Iraqi soldier as a merciless killer who immediately told lies to cover up what he had done, but the defense described him an exemplary lance corporal forced to make a split-second decision in combat.
Maj. Christopher Shaw, the lead prosecutor, told jurors that Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes used his bayonet to inflict 17 stab wounds, 26 cuts and one chop on the Iraqi, and that there was no sign that Holmes sustained any injury.
But defense attorney Steve Cook said Holmes believed that the Iraqi was signaling to an insurgent sniper and followed his Marine training to keep fighting "until the threat is removed."
Holmes, 22, a reservist from Indianapolis, was sharing a tiny sentry post on the second floor of a collapsed building in the city of Fallouja when he allegedly killed Iraqi Pvt. Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin. The outpost where the sentry post was located has repeatedly been a target for snipers, prosecution witnesses said.
If convicted of unpremeditated murder, Holmes could face life in prison.
 
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