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Former Marine testifies in detainee killings

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A former Marine sergeant told jurors Tuesday he saw dread on the faces of two detainees after the apparent shooting death of another detainee during some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq war.

“It’s something I wouldn’t forget, that face, the dread,” Cory Carlisle told jurors during testimony in the federal trial of former squad leader Jose Luis Nazario, the first prosecution in which a civilian jury will decide whether the actions of a former service member in combat were criminal.

Nazario, 28, has pleaded not guilty to voluntary manslaughter on suspicion of killing or causing others to kill four unarmed detainees, assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. If convicted of all the charges, he could face more than 10 years in prison.

Nazario is being tried under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which was written in 2000 and amended in 2004 primarily to prosecute civilian contractors who commit crimes while working for the U.S. overseas. But it also allows for the prosecution of military dependents and those no longer in the military who commit crimes outside the United States.

The case came to light in 2006 when Sgt. Ryan Weemer volunteered details to a U.S. Secret Service job interviewer during a lie-detector screening that included a question about the most serious crime he ever committed.

Several Marines allege Nazario shot two Iraqi men who had been detained while his squad searched a house, according to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service criminal complaint. The complaint claims four Iraqi men were killed during the action.

Carlisle testified that on Nov. 9, 2004, the squad entered Fallujah.

According to The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise, he told the jury that a few Marines took cover in a house from incoming mortars, and then later moved into another house nearby where they found four Iraqi men sitting along a wall between two bedroom doors.

“Did they put their hands in the air?” asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Behnke.

“I specifically don’t recall,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle said he and other Marines searched the home for more people and then again for weapons. He said he heard a gun shot and went to find out what happened. That’s when he said he saw Weemer with his gun out and an older man on the ground.

Carlisle said he was trying to leave when he heard another gun shot and saw Nazario in a living room with the other three men.

“One man was lying on the ground. We didn’t look too far into it but you could tell he was dead. Sgt. Nazario was returning his weapon to the ready,” he said.

He said he could tell the man was dead from the body and the expressions on the faces of the other two detainees who stood there, staring at Nazario.

“That’s the face I saw on both of these men,” Carlisle testified.

Weemer and another Marine, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, are slated to be court-martialed on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty for his role in the deaths. They were both found in contempt of court last week for refusing to testify against Nazario.