VILSECK, GERMANY (AP) - A U.S. Army master sergeant has been convicted of murder in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees in the spring of 2007.
A jury of eight Army officers and noncommissioned officers issued the verdict Wednesday against Master Sgt. John Hatley who was charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder.
Hatley was found not guilty of premeditated murder in a January incident where a wounded Iraqi insurgent was shot and killed.
The 40-year-old soldier will be sentenced Thursday and faces the possibility of life imprisonment.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
VILSECK, Germany (AP) _ A U.S. Army master sergeant acted as “judge, jury and executioner” in hatching a plot to kill four bound and blindfolded Iraqis in 2007, a prosecutor told his court-martial on Wednesday.
Army prosecutors say Master Sgt. John Hatley and two others took the four men to Baghdad’s West Rasheed neighborhood, shot them in the head and dumped their bodies into a canal.
But Hatley’s defense lawyer maintained in his closing arguments that there was no physical evidence that the killings ever happened as bodies had never been found.
Hatley, 40, pleaded not guilty Monday to premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and obstruction of justice over the spring 2007 incident. He also faces murder charges from a separate January 2007 incident.
Army prosecutor Capt. Derrick Grace said testimony had pointed to “a complete breakdown of discipline and crimes that are among the worst of a soldier.”
“On two separate occasions, the accused became the judge, jury and executioner,” he told a jury.
Prosecutors allege that Hatley oversaw the shootings of detainees and that he told his comrades they were going to “take care” of the Iraqis before killing them.
Defense lawyer David Court said the prosecution was relying on circumstantial evidence and conflicting testimony delivered during the trial and earlier courts-martial.
Two other soldiers in Hatley’s unit, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Mayo and then-Sgt. Michael Leahy, have been convicted of the killings at separate courts-martial earlier this year.
According to testimony this week and at previous courts-martial, the four Iraqis were taken into custody in spring 2007 after an exchange of fire with Hatley’s unit and the discovery of weapons in a building where suspects had fled.
But Court said Wednesday that authorities had failed to find evidence such as bullet casings, blood, bodies and witnesses.
Two other soldiers pleaded guilty in the spring incident, one to conspiracy to commit premeditated murder and one to accessory to murder, and were sentenced to prison last year. Two others had charges of conspiracy to commit premeditated murder dropped this year.
All were with the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in Baghdad. The unit is now part of the Germany-based 172nd Infantry Brigade.
Army Judge Col. Jeffrey Nance and a jury of eight officers and noncommissioned officers are hearing the case at the U.S. Army’s Rose Barracks in Vilseck.
It was not immediately clear when the jury would deliver a verdict. If convicted, Hatley could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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