Afghanistan Contractor Pleads Guilty to Killing Man Who Burned Co-Worker

[Coventina]

Source: Washington Post

A civilian contractor pleaded guilty yesterday to voluntary manslaughter in the killing in Afghanistan of a man who set the contractor's co-worker on fire, prosecutors said.

Don M. Ayala had been charged in federal court in Alexandria with second-degree murder in the Nov. 4 incident. According to the U.S. attorney's office, it took place in the village of Chehel Gazi, where Ayala and co-worker Paula Loyd were on a walking patrol with an Army platoon.

According to the prosecutor's office, Abdul Salam, an Afghan, doused Loyd with gasoline and ignited it. He fled, but Ayala and several U.S. soldiers tackled and restrained him, prosecutors said.

Minutes later, after Ayala was told of Loyd's condition and while Salam was still restrained, Ayala shot him in the head, according to the prosecutors' statement. Salam was killed instantly, the prosecutors said.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020304389.html

[newfie11]

1. Wouldn't that be justifiable homicide?

I can't image burning someone. The one bullet doesn't compare to the pain the burned guy got.

[edc]

2. I think the burned guy was a woman

If the merc had just shot the S.O.B rather than capturing and then shooting him, it would have been a simple act of war rather than homicide. Of course, the dead remain dead either way, and the lives of the survivors are altered irrevocably either way.

[RamboLiberal]

3. Yes it was a woman - and she suffered before she died last month

I have really mixed feeling on this case. I can well understand why the contractor shot this jerk. It was wrong but it certainly was understandable.

The second- and third-degree burns that engulfed 60 percent of Paula Loyd's body persistently got infected and finally claimed the 36-year-old's life.

In November, Loyd was in Afghanistan as a social scientist for BAE Systems, according to a BAE news release. She was embedded with troops as part of the Human Terrain System program, which pairs social scientists with ground troops to interview citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan and improve relationships.

According to a recent San Antonio Express-News story, Loyd approached a man carrying a fuel jug Nov. 4. Without warning, the man doused Loyd with gasoline and set her on fire. Loyd's colleague threw her into water and she was airlifted to Brooke Army Medical Center, where she died Wednesday.

“She's very strong-natured, and we had hope,” said Loyd's mother, Patricia Ward. “The doctors told us when someone tries as hard as she did, it makes them try harder, too.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/obituaries/37371779.html


Paula Loyd

[MetaTrope]

4. Wow, he sure went to trial fast

Remember Steven Green, who led a group of his fellow soldiers in raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and murdering her and her family? Three years ago? He hasn't gone to trial yet.