- A 44-year-old Anchorage veteran charged in a series of rapes was sentenced to five years in connection with an assault on a woman at a grocery store in 2006. The vet, already in jail, faces 12 more charges. [via Anchorage Daily News]
- Jury selection continues in the Alabama trial of a 26-year-old Iraq War vet who kidnapped, robbed and shot an 18-year-old Auburn University freshman in 2008. Defense attorneys questioned potential jurors about their views on the military and PTSD, possibly preparing for an insanity defense. The defendant, who served three years in Korea and Iraq before a discharge over marijuana possession charges, was living out of his car before the arrest. [via Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
- British military interrogators may face war crimes charges based on films members of their unit took of Iraqi detainees being threatened and abused. The information came up at the end of proceedings on behalf of 222 Iraqis detained by the British in a secret facility near Basra after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as part of an effort to force a public investigation of accusations of systematic mistreatment. [via UPI]
- A Colorado jury has begun deliberations in the trial of a 52-year-old retired Army sergeant and sex offender accused in the May 2009 fatal beating and rape of his 8-month-old grandson. Prosecutors say grandfather was left alone with the baby and intentionally bashed in his skull, the grandfather claims he accidentally bumped the baby’s head and dropped him, and defense attorneys say the mother killed the baby. [via Colorado Springs Gazette]
- A suspect has been arrested in the shooting death of a reservist-turned-police officer during a traffic stop. The 27-year-old former Army MP completed two tours in Iraq and a stint in Germany. A $400,000 reward had been raised in the case. [via Los Angeles Times]
- A 34-year-old soldier in Alaska was sentenced to seven years for drunkenly crashing his car with his two sons inside and injuring a person. The soldier who pleaded guilty, reported said at the time of his arrest, he’d had five beers, that he was an “idiot” and “ought to be hung.” [via Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, here and here]
- The trial has begun for an Army staff sergeant who is the accused ringleader in the killings of three Afghan civilians. One of the investigators testified the sergeant had produced a collection of severed fingers from Afghan corpses and used them to intimidate a private from the unit who had already been stomped and beaten, The private was “scared for his own safety,” but eventually revealed that the platoon’s misdeeds had gone far beyond hashish smoking and the beating. The sergeant did not testify. [via Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times]
- The defense does not plan to present any evidence when a military hearing resumes next week for the Army psychiatrist charged in last year’s deadly Fort Hood shootings, the lead defense attorney said Tuesday. [via Associated Press/Washington Post]
UPDATED:
- A 22-year-old Ohio National Guardsman’s organs have helped at least seven other people after he suffered a catastrophic brain injury in a car accident. His parents say their son is a hero, just as if he had died saving another in combat. [via Cincinati Enquirer]
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A Note About the Blotter: I want to make a crime blotter a regular or semi-regular feature of the blog, but I’ve got to help put out a newspaper too, so let’s just see how this goes. Also, if you see something we missed, send me a link and I’ll do my best to get it into the blotter.
