Attorney: Marine Charged With Murdering Iraqi Soldier As They Stood Watch In Fallujah

Tuesday, August 14th 2007, 9:39 pm

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ A Marine reservist has been charged with murdering an Iraqi army soldier as the pair stood watch together before dawn on New Year's Eve in Fallujah, an attorney said Tuesday.

Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, 21, of Indianapolis, is accused of stabbing Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin at a security post after Hassin violated orders not to display illuminated objects because of the threat of sniper fire, Holmes' lawyer Steve Cook said.

Hassin had opened his cell phone and then lit a cigarette at the post, and Holmes repeatedly tried to make Hassin extinguish the cigarette, Cook said.

``(Holmes) said 'No, no,' but the Iraqi soldier refused to put out the cigarette,'' Cook said. ``Holmes knocked it out of his hands and they started wrestling on the ground.''

Holmes thought Hassin was reaching for his loaded AK-47, so the Marine killed him with his bayonet, then radioed for help, Cook said.

Holmes faces charges of unpremeditated murder and making a false official statement and has been in the Camp Pendleton brig since Feb. 23, Cook said.

Cook said his client acted in self-defense.

``Lance Cpl. Holmes is not guilty of the charges, and he intends to prove that at trial,'' Cook said.

Holmes was arraigned July 31 but reserved his right not to enter a plea.

A message left with a Camp Pendleton Marine spokesman was not immediately returned Tuesday night.

The attorney said he waited until now to go public about his client's case because he hoped the Marines ``would do the right thing'' and drop the charges.

Holmes' court-martial is set to begin Dec. 3, said Cook, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego.

Holmes enlisted in the Marine reserves in May 2004 and was on his first deployment in Iraq, Cook said. He is from the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, based out of Lansing, Mich.