G.I. Found Guilty Of Killing Iraqi
Could Get 10 Years For Shooting Wounded Man After Chase
-
Play CBS Video Video Army Vehicle Disappoints The Army's high-tech armored vehicle isn't protecting troops the way it was designed to. Byron Pitts says both the military and accountability groups are criticizing the $4 million Strykers.
-
Video Scathing WMD Report A government report slammed intelligence agencies' faulty WMD info. John Roberts says that President Bush's response was to vow to work toward major intelligence system reform.
-
Video Experts On Intel Weakness Bob Schieffer spoke with the heads of the commission that issued a report on the U.S.'s intel agencies. Former Sen. Charles Robb and retired judge Lawrence Silberman say there needs to be an overhaul.
-
Capt. Rogelio Maynulet (AP)
-
Interactive Two Years Later Major events, photos and more on the rebuilding of Iraq.
-
Interactive Iraq Votes Election results, facts on candidates and the polling, photos and more.
-
Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
Capt. Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet, a 30-year-old from Chicago, stood at attention as the verdict was read.
The court was to reconvene later Thursday to consider Maynulet's sentence. The charge — assault with intent to commit voluntary manslaughter — carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors had sought a conviction on a more serious charge of assault with intent to commit murder that carried a 20-year maximum.
Maynulet told the court Wednesday that his shooting of an unarmed Iraqi wounded in a chase was "honorable" and "the right thing to do."
He was found guilty in the May 21, 2004, killing near Kufa, south of Baghdad. He had pleaded not guilty.
Taking the stand for the first time Wednesday, Maynulet described his company's mission and the events that led him to fire twice upon the Iraqi, maintaining that the man was too badly injured to survive.
"He was in a state that I didn't think was dignified — I had to put him out of his misery," Maynulet said. He argued that the killing "was the right thing to do, it was the honorable thing to do."
Prosecutors at the court-martial said Maynulet violated military rules of engagement by shooting an Iraqi who was wounded and unarmed.
Maynulet's 1st Armored Division tank company had been on patrol near Kufa when it was alerted to a car thought to be carrying a driver for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and another militiaman loyal to the Shiite cleric.
They chased the vehicle and fired at it, wounding both the passenger, who fled and was later apprehended, and the driver. The killing was filmed by a U.S. drone surveillance aircraft.
©MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
