Martinez found not guilty in fragging trial

[unhappycamper]

Martinez found not guilty in fragging trial
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 4, 2008 21:57:30 EST

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — A soldier was acquitted of murder Thursday in the 2005 bombing deaths of two superiors in Iraq, triggering loud outbursts and gasps from the slain officers’ families.

A military jury found National Guard Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez not guilty of two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen. Both officers were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in a window of their room at a U.S. military base in Iraq in June 2005.

“He slaughtered our husbands and that’s it?” yelled Allen’s widow, Barbara Allen, moments after the verdict was read. Someone else shouted out that Martinez was a “murdering son of a bitch” before the judge quickly ordered the courtroom cleared.

The 14-member jury spent two days deliberating after a six-week trial at Fort Bragg, during which Martinez chose not to testify. The New York National Guard soldier could have faced the death penalty if he had been convicted.

“We are pleased that the military justice system worked,” the Martinez family said in a written statement released afterward by defense attorneys. “Our sympathies go out to the families of the victims.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_martinez_fragg...