GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq

GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq
May 26, 2011
Associated Press
FORT STEWART, Ga. -- An Army sergeant was found guilty on Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 slayings of his squad leader and another U.S. Soldier at a patrol base in Iraq, but he was spared the death penalty when the military jury didn't return a unanimous verdict.

Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich now faces a sentence of life in prison, either with or without the possibility of parole. The death penalty is an option in a court-martial only when there's a unanimous guilty verdict for premeditated murder. The 12-member jury at Fort Stewart did not report exactly how it was split when it announced its verdict.

Bozicevich, 41, admitted during the trial that he shot Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin at a patrol base outside Baghdad on Sept. 14, 2008, after they criticized him for making mistakes in an unforgiving war zone. But he testified that he only opened fire because the two Soldiers aimed rifles at his head and threatened to kill him if he didn't sign off on their written reports about him.

Prosecutors insisted that he grabbed his gun in anger after the men wounded his pride, when Dawson decided to strip the Soldier of his leadership role of a four-man squad because of a series of battlefield blunders. Prosecutor Maj. Scott Ford told jurors Tuesday that Bozicevich snapped after that "final blow to his ego."
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GI Found Guilty of Killing 2 Comrades in Iraq