Prosecution rests in fragging court-martial

[unhappycamper]

Army Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez is charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip T. Esposito, 30, and 1st Lt. Louis E. Allen, 34, of the New York National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division.


Prosecution rests in fragging court-martial
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 10, 2008 17:04:15 EST

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The final prosecution witness told a military jury Monday that she gave at least three Claymore antipersonnel mines to a New York National Guard soldier accused of using such an explosive to kill two superior officers in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Amy Harlan testified that she was a member of a different unit at the same base and dropped off mines, grenades and bullets at the supply room of defendant Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez, 41, of Troy, N.Y.

Harlan said she didn’t get or ask for a receipt recording the handoff of the munitions left by a previous infantry division. The lack of a receipt means there is no documentation that could be used to trace a serial number on a mine.

Harlan said Martinez told her, “These will be put to good use.”

Defense attorney Maj. John Gregory tried to shake her testimony, asking if she had lied to police in the past and questioning her recall of events more than three years ago. The judge ruled that the defense couldn’t use her conversation with an officer who gave her a traffic citation as evidence of untruthfulness.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_martinez_111008/%2e