After an Army medic reported that a bullet-riddled insurgent was going to die, his sergeant ordered him to suffocate the Iraqi before fatally shooting the man himself, the medic testified during the sergeant's court-martial Tuesday.
Sgt. Leonardo Trevino had asked how to speed up the Iraqi's death following a gun battle in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, Spc. John Torres testified. The medic said he was kidding when he suggested suffocating the wounded man, but when ordered to do so, he pretended by lightly holding his hand over the man's mouth.
Torres later told Army investigators that he felt bad after that night in June, although he testified Tuesday that the man was bleeding so badly that he could not have given him morphine for pain.
Under cross-examination, he denied defense attorney Richard V. Stevens' suggestion that the Iraqi was dead when he removed his hand from his mouth.
"He wasn't dead," Torres testified. "He was still ... breathing."
Trevino, of San Antonio, has pleaded innocent to premeditated murder and other charges but faces up to life in a military prison and a discharge if convicted. Authorities say he shot the insurgent in the abdomen, a nonfatal wound, before ordering Torres to suffocate him. They allege Trevino then shot the Iraqi in the head and tried to cover up the crime.
After the government rested its case Tuesday afternoon, defense attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the obstruction of justice and solicitation to commit murder charges. Col. Gregory Gross was to rule on those motions Wednesday before the defense started presenting its case.
~ read on... ~
No comments:
Post a Comment