Investigator testifies in Iraq fragging case

[unhappycamper]

Investigator testifies in Iraq fragging case
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 5:58:30 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — An Army investigator testified Tuesday that the scene of an explosion in Iraq that killed two New York National Guard officers didn’t look like a crime scene when he got there.

Special Agent Paul Comesanas testified during the Fort Bragg court-martial of Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez, 41, of Troy, N.Y. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of premeditated murder in the killings of Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, and faces a possible death sentence. He is the first soldier from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be charged with killing a superior officer — known during the Vietnam War as “fragging.”

Comesanas said when he first went to the blown-up room on June 7, 2005, on a U.S. base near Tikrit, he had no idea it might be a crime scene, The Fayetteville Observer reported. The agent said everyone thought it was the scene of a rocket attack.

Prosecutors have said a demolitions expert later saw remnants of a Claymore anti-personnel mine, which is when investigators were called back.

A Claymore mine is filled with hundreds of steel balls propelled by an explosive. The mine is attached to a 100-foot wire and detonated with a switch. The agent said a bundle of wire and the switch were found later in a lake. Another soldier has testified he saw Martinez outside the building immediately after the explosion.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_martinez_trial_102808/%2e