US soldier gets 35 yrs for killing 4 Iraqis
A second US soldier was convicted yesterday of murder in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees in 2007 and sentenced to 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty at his court-martial.
Wearing his dress uniform and speaking crispy and confidently, Sergeant 1st Class Joseph Mayo of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder at the proceeding at the US Army's Rose Barracks in southern Germany.
He pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice in the incident, which occurred while he was deployed to Iraq. Military prosecutors dropped that charge.
The 27-year-old was sentenced to 35 years in prison and will be incarcerated at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He will also be dishonorably discharged. His lawyer, Michael Waddington, said Mayo would be eligible for parole in about 10 years.
Colonel Jeffrey Nance, the judge overseeing the proceedings, told Mayo that he "entered into an agreement to commit premeditated murder" that saw the four Iraqi men shot in the head by the side of a canal in Baghdad between March and April 2007.
In February a military court convicted Sergeant Michael Leahy, 28, of Lockport, Illinois, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after he admitted to the execution-style killing of one of the detainees and shooting another. He was acquitted of murder over a separate incident in Baghdad in January 2007.
According to testimony at previous courts-martial, at least four Iraqis were taken into custody in spring 2007 after a shootout with a patrol.
The Iraqis were taken to the US unit's operating base in Baghdad for questioning and processing, although there was not enough evidence to hold them for attacking the unit. Later that night patrol members took the Iraqis to a remote area and shot them in retribution for the attacks on the unit, according to testimony.
Mayo, Leahy and Master Sergeant John Hatley, 40, are accused of pulling the trigger.
Mayo has been in the Army for nearly a decade.
AP
(China Daily 03/31/2009 page12)
