World

Guilty Plea From U.S. Peacekeeper

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 28, 2000 / 6:49 PM EDT / CBS

A U.S. soldier scheduled to stand trial next week for the killing of an ethnic Albanian girl in Kosovo has pleaded guilty, a military spokeswoman said Saturday.

Staff Sgt. Frank J. Ronghi, 36, entered the plea late Friday at the request of his defense lawyer and will be sentenced Monday, the day his trial was to start, said Hilda Patton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army's 5th Corps.

He pleaded guilty to charges of murder, forcible sodomy and three counts of indecent acts with a child, she said.

But prosecutors, without explanation, dropped two other charges, one of rape and another of sodomy murder—a single charge distinct from the murder and forcible sodomy charges—during the two-hour session led by a U.S. Army judge, Col. Kenneth Clavenger.
Ronghi faces a possible sentence of life in prison, or life without the possibility of parole, Patton said.

He also is expected to face a reduction in rank to private, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a dishonorable discharge, she said.

U.S. Army prosecutors declined to seek death penalty in deference to Germany's strong opposition to capital punishment.

Ronghi was charged with killing Merita Shabiu on Jan. 13 in the basement of an apartment building and burying her body in the snow near the town of Vitina. He was arrested just days after the killing. The girl died of suffocation and had wounds consistent with a struggle, medical experts have said.

A native of Niles, Ohio, Ronghi was a weapons squad leader assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C., and was serving with U.S. peacekeeping forces at the time of the killing.

The girl's death raised tensions between peacekeeping troops in Kosovo and ethnic Albanians. Ethnic Albanians in the province already had been critical of other alleged mistreatment, including inappropriate body searches of women since the 50,000-person NATO-led force entered Kosovo in June 1999.

CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton reports U.S. officials have expressed their sympathies to the family of a murdered girl in Kosovo and promised to do everything they can to secure justice for the family's loss.

"I did not know your daughter, but as a father, I feel a deep sense of loss and can imagine your pain," Brigadier General Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. forces in Kosovo, wrote in a letter to the Khabiu family.

"The Department of the Army will spare no effort in bringing this matter to justice," he added.

The girl's father, Hamdi Shabiu, said that the crime's occurring so close to home is part of what makes it so horrible.

"They killed her twenty meters from our house," he said. "She was just eleven-and-a-half years old."

Ronghi's family in Ohio had spoken out in his defense. The soldier's brother said his family was shocked by the charges and believes he is innocent.

"He comes from a well-respected family," Lou Ronghi Jr. said from hi parents' home in Niles, where he and his brother grew up. Ronghi said his family learned of the charges against his brother through news reports.