Attorney: Ex-Marine Faces Manslaughter Charge In Deaths Of Captured Insurgents

Thursday, August 16th 2007, 3:25 pm

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ A former Marine sergeant has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the killings of two captured Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah in 2004, his lawyer said Thursday.

Jose Nazario was to appear in federal court in Riverside for a bail hearing Thursday, attorney Emery Ledger told The Associated Press. He said Nazario was charged last week.

``He absolutely maintains his innocence,'' Ledger said.

The Navy has been investigating claims that Camp Pendleton Marines killed between five and 10 unarmed suspected Iraqi insurgents who had been captured during a fierce battle in Fallujah in 2004. The probe centers on the actions of several former members of 3rd Squad, 3rd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines.

Nazario was squad leader. Because he is no longer in the military, his case is being handled in federal court.

According to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service criminal complaint supplied by Ledger, the killings occurred Nov. 9, 2004. The complaint says several Marines, whose names are redacted, allege Nazario shot two Iraqi men who had been detained while his squad searched a house.

The complaint states the squad had been taking fire from the house. After the troops entered the building and captured the insurgents, Nazario placed a call on his radio.

``Nazario said that he was asked, 'Are they dead yet?''' the complaint states. When Nazario responded that the captives were still alive, he was allegedly told by the Marine on the radio to ``make it happen.''

According to the complaint, Nov. 9 was a day of heavy combat during which one member of Nazario's squad was killed.

Ledger said Nazario was arrested Aug. 7 and placed into custody with the NCIS, but released that day with a summons to appear.

After leaving the military, Nazario was working as a probationary police officer with the Riverside Police Department. He was fired the day of his arrest, according to a police letter supplied to the AP by Ledger.

The allegations against him surfaced when Ryan Weemer, a former Marine corporal, applied for a job with the Secret Service. Prosecutors claim Weemer described the killings during a polygraph test that included a question about whether he had participated in a wrongful death, said his attorney, Paul Hackett.

Hackett, a Marine reservist who has served in Iraq and ran for Congress in Ohio, has said his client did nothing wrong and never said otherwise during the job interview.

``Weemer, along with his fellow Marines, fought valiantly ... through the hellhole of Fallujah, and ask for little more than to return to the lives they left behind with the hope and promise that defines America,'' Hackett said.

Weemer has not been charged. Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesman Ed Buice directed questions to the U.S. attorney's office, where spokesman Thom Mrozek declined to comment.