US Army Sargent Pleads Guilty to 16 Murders

05 Jun, 2013

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. (AP) — The American soldier charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians during nighttime raids on two villages last year pleaded guilty Wednesday to avoid the death penalty, setting the stage for him to recount the horrific slaughter in a military courtroom.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales pleaded guilty to 16 counts of premeditated murder and other charges in the March 2012 attacks on two villages near the remote base in southern Afghanistan where he was posted.

Most of the victims were women and children, and some of the bodies were burned; relatives have told The Associated Press they are irate at the notion Bales will escape execution for one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war.

A military judge still must decide whether to accept his plea.

As the hearing began at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, the judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, explained Bales’ rights and asked the soldier if he understood them. Bales stood and answered: “Yes, sir, I do.”

Defense attorney Emma Scanlan then entered Bales’ pleas. She entered one not guilty plea on his behalf, to a charge that he impeded the investigation by breaking his laptop after he was taken into custody.

Bales, 39, has signed a lengthy stipulation of facts about his actions the night of the attacks. Nance said he will question the soldier at the hearing about the details admitted in that document.

Bales’ attorney John Henry Browne has said he expects his client to admit to “very specific facts” about the killings.

Browne said last week that Bales, a father of two from Lake Tapps, was “crazed” and “broken” but not legally insane at the time of the killings.

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