Sgt. Nazario acquitted of charges

Ex-Marine accused of Iraqi prisoner deaths is acquitted
Jose Nazario, charged in the 2004 killings of four detainees, was found not guilty by a Riverside jury. His case marks the first time civilians decided if an ex-serviceman committed a combat crime.
By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 29, 2008



A civilian jury in Riverside today acquitted a former Marine sergeant in the killing of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners in the battle for Fallouja in 2004.

Despite hearing a tape-recorded phone call in which Jose Nazario appeared to admit to ordering the killings, jurors said prosecutors had not made the case against him. They also said they felt it wasn't right for them to judge a Marine's actions in combat.

They found Nazario, 28, not guilty of manslaughter, assault and use of a firearm in the shooting deaths in the landmark case, the first time in the modern era that American civilian jurors have been asked to decide whether a former member of the military committed a crime during combat.

Cheers erupted in the court when the verdict was read. One of the jurors had tears in her eyes.

Nazario, who had been stoic throughout the trial, was in tears, surrounded by a supportive group of former Marines and former co-workers from the Riverside Police Department. Outside the courtroom, Nazario called his wife, Diette, in New York to tell her of the verdict, and all those around him could hear her screaming with joy and calling out to their 2-year-old son: "Gabriel, Daddy is innocent!"
click post title for the rest and may I add in hallelujah