Marine pleads not guilty in Iraq grandfather death
Source: Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine who a colleague testified shot up to 10 bullets into an Iraqi grandfather pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to murder and other charges. At an arraignment at Camp Pendleton near San Diego, California, the attorney for Cpl. Trent Thomas said he was not guilty of murder, kidnapping and other charges in the April 2006 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania, Iraq. The case involving seven Marines and a Navy medic is one of several during the Iraq war in which U.S. armed service members are accused of crimes or abuses of Iraqi civilians. Three of the eight have pleaded guilty, and one, Petty Officer Melson Bacos, 21, has been sentenced to a year in prison. The three said the unit kidnapped the elderly Iraqi in the middle of the night and planted clues to suggest he was an insurgent. During his court-martial last month, Bacos said he watched the unit commander fire three rounds into Awad's head, and said Thomas pumped another seven to 10 rounds into the man's chest. "I felt sick to my stomach," he said. Thomas' lawyer declined to discuss specifics. A military judge set a March trial date for Thomas, a St. Louis native who was serving his third tour in Iraq when the killing occurred. He had previously won a Purple Heart when he was wounded in Falluja during his second tour. The other two men who pleaded guilty in the case will be sentenced Wednesday and Thursday at Camp Pendleton.
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