Prosecutor: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales had blood of Afghanistan massacre victims on him
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales participates in an exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., Aug. 23, 2011, in this picture from the Defense Video and Imagery Distribution System. / AP Photo/DVIDS
Updated at 7:00 p.m. ET
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. A caped figure captured on surveillance video came running out of the darkness to the edge of a remote Army outpost in southern Afghanistan. Blood was smeared on his face, prosecutors said, and soaked into his clothes.
Less than a mile away, 16 Afghans, including nine children, were dead, some of their bodies on fire in two villages.
As fellow soldiers stopped him at the base's gate, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was incredulous, prosecutors said. Then, as he was taken into custody, Bales said: "I thought I was doing the right thing."
The details, from a prosecutor as well as Bales' comrades, emerged Monday as a preliminary hearing in his case opened, offering the clearest picture yet of one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Bales, 39, has been charged with 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder in one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The hearing will help determine whether the case goes to a court martial.
- Robert Bales' wife: He's innocent
- Afghan official: U.S. impeded Bales investigation
- U.S. pays Afghans $50K per shooting death
Bales has not entered a plea. His attorneys have not discussed the evidence in the case, but say Bales has PTSD and suffered a concussive head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.
Robert Bales' wife: He's innocent
During the summer, Bales' wife, Karilyn, said on "CBS This Morning" that she believed her husband was innocent.
"I truly believe that my husband did not do this," she said in the July interview. "I really just want the facts to come out through the fair trial."
The father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., sat beside one of his civilian lawyers, Emma Scanlan, in green fatigues as an investigating officer read the charges against Bales and informed him of his rights. Bales said, "Sir, yes, sir," when asked if he understood them.
Morse said Bales seemed utterly normal in the hours before the March 11 killings. With his colleagues, Bales watched the movie "Man on Fire," a fictional account of a former CIA operative on a revenge rampage.
Just before he left the base, Morse said, Bales told a Special Forces soldier that he was unhappy with his family life, and that the troops should have been quicker to retaliate for a roadside bomb attack that claimed one soldier's leg.
"At all times he had a clear understanding of what he was doing and what he had done," said Morse, who described Bales as lucid, coherent and responsive.
Bales is accused of slipping away from the remote outpost with an M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher to attack the villages of Balandi and Alkozai, in a dangerous district.
American officials have said they believe Bales broke the slaughter into two episodes — walking first to one village, returning to the base and slipping away again to carry out the second attack.
The prosecutor said Bales returned to the base at one point, telling a colleague about shooting people at a village. The soldier apparently took it as a bad joke and responded: "Quit messing around."
Prosecutors played for the first time a video captured by a surveillance blimp that showed a caped figure running toward the base, then stopping and dropping his weapons as he's confronted. There is no audio. Morse said Bales was the caped figure.
After being taken into custody, Morse said, Bales said: "I thought I was doing the right thing."
Problems with Bales investigation in Afghanistan
The hearing is scheduled to run as long as two weeks, and part of it will be held overnight to allow video testimony from witnesses, including an estimated 10 to 15 Afghans, in Afghanistan.
Bales' attorney, John Henry Browne, said the hearing will give the defense a chance to see what the government can prove. They are expecting a court martial.
Bales is an Ohio native who joined the Army in late 2001 — after the 9/11 attacks — as his career as a stockbroker imploded. An arbitrator entered a $1.5 million fraud judgment against him and his former company that went unpaid, and his attempt to start an investment firm in Florida also failed.
He was serving his fourth combat tour after three stints in Iraq, and his arrest prompted a national discussion about the stresses posed by multiple deployments.
Scanlan, his attorney, declined to say to what extent the lawyers hope to elicit testimony that could be used to support a mental-health defense. Bales himself will not make any statements because his lawyers said he would have nothing to gain.
Karilyn Bales, who plans to attend the hearing, had complained about financial problems on her blog in the year before the killings, and noted Bales was disappointed at being passed over for a promotion.
Browne described those stresses as garden-variety — nothing that would prompt such a massacre — and has also said, without elaborating, that Bales suffered a traumatic incident during his second Iraq tour that triggered "tremendous depression."
Bales remembers little or nothing from the time of the attacks, the defense said.
Scanlan, who deferred an opportunity to give an opening statement, said the Army had only recently turned over a preliminary DNA trace evidence report from the crime scenes, but defense experts have not had time to review it.
Bales, who spent months in confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., before being transferred to Lewis-McChord last month, is doing well, Scanlan said.
"He's getting prepared," she said, "but it's nerve-wracking for anybody."
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Tornado victims start picking up the pieces
- Tsarnaev friend implicates dead brother, self in murders 82 Comments
- Tornado's destructive path 17 Photos
- Brigadier general suspended over altercation with woman
- Up-close video of Moore, Okla., tornado Play Video
- Deadliest U.S. tornadoes 10 Photos
- Oklahoma tornado as seen by storm chasers Play Video
- At least 51 dead after massive Okla. tornado
WHat a ridiculous comment abut Obama & ending the wars. Has no place here. Better to ask if incidents like this are an indication to eliminate the all volunteer force, where the price of war is born by a select few while the majority are insulated from it's spain & scars, bumper stickers with yellow ribbons saying you support the troops not withstanding. Are we ready for the draft to come back? Or are you willing to keep sending the same guys back, over & over? That is one of the key questions. Step up or shut up.
The man has obviously suffered PTSD, poss TBI. Repeated deployments had no doubt played a part. But this is a volunteer force. No one MADE him sign up again & again. Indeed, it may be partially blamed on his being passed over for promotion that aggravated his reaction. (In the military, of a certain rank, get passed over too many times (usually twice) and you will be processed for separation- it can make things intense. Most jobs dont have that added pressure- advance or perish)
The ultimate question: do these events excuse his behavior for such obvious transgressions? This appears to be premeditated, carried out with planning & foresight, he even came back for more weapons & munitions, yet had the sense to ditch the weapons when he was about to be caught.
That's premeditation plus awareness what he was doing was wrong. He murdered men, women & children in a violent bloody way while they were sleeping for no other reason other than they were Afghans.
I know this will get slogged out by lawyers, but certainly based on what has come out thus far, I have little sympathy for him. Before you snap to this extent, ask for help.
I say this as USN(Ret). It is tragic but his pain doesn't excuse his actions.
Vote Obama for 4 more years of war.
"CHANGE" you can count on!
After so many tours, and injury, this man deserved better than being redeployed in Afghanistan after Iraq.
Now, with so many dead, it doesn't matter what the outcome.
to heck with the Taliban...Firing Squad we don't need "shell shock" shoot em up nut cases!