A US soldier who had been charged with murder in the deaths of three Iraqi detainees pleaded guilty today to a lesser offense of aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon.
Spc. Juston R. Graber is accused with three others from the 101st Airborne Division's 187th Infantry Regiment of killing detainees during a raid of a suspected al-Qaeda stronghold near Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
They also were accused of trying to deceive investigators by saying the detainees were fleeing when they were shot.
Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, Spc. William B. Hunsaker and Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard are awaiting courts-martial in the case.
Graber told the military judge that once the area was secured during the raid, he went back to a helicopter to get a body bag. He said he heard gunshots and saw the three detainees lying on the ground near the house.
Two of the detainees appeared to still be alive, Graber said. He testified that Girouard suggested they put one man "out of his misery."
Graber said he then shot the man in the head. Graber told the judge, Col. Theodore Dixon, that he knew Girouard was not ordering him to shoot the detainee and that what he did was unlawful.
"I know what I did was wrong," Graber said.
After Graber's testimony, the judge recessed the hearing to consider the plea.
Graber had also been charged with attempted premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder. He pleaded not guilty to both.
AP