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North County Times is reporting Attorney says Wuterich being charged with murder in Haditha case

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The Marine Corps is charging the squad leader for a group of Camp Pendleton troops tied to the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha last year with multiple counts of unpremeditated murder.

At least two other Marines are also facing charges, but it is unclear at this hour if others will be charged. Neal Puckett, the attorney for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, said at about 11 a.m. this morning that his client is being charged with 12 counts of murder plus one count of murdering six others by ordering his troops to shoot and ask questions later.

Gary Myers, attorney for Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, said his client was not notified this morning that his client has been charged with three counts of unpremeditated murder. Myers explained as the equivalent of second degree murder.

Sharatt, Myers said, will not be jailed at this point but he did not know if his client would have other restrictions, such as not being allowed to leave base.

"Our position is now and always has been that these were combat-related deaths."

The attorney for a third Marine, Lance Cpl. Stephan B. Tatum, confirmed that his client will be charged. However, that attorney, Jack Zimmerman said Tatum was not at Camp Pendleton today and has not had the charges read to him yet. Zimmerman declined to give the specific charges.

Dozens of reporters and camera crews are descending on the base this morning for the formal charging announcement against Wuterich and about what actions are being taken against Marine commanders, whose handling of the initial report of the civilian deaths and their subsequent investigation of what happened have come under question.

A formal news conference is set for 1 p.m. at a media center on the base established earlier this year for reporters to cover the Haditha case and an unrelated homicide case involving the April 26 shooting death of a retired Iraqi policeman. The leveling of murder charges is not a surpise, according to one military legal expert.

"If we want to have a justice system that is taken seriously around the world, then we have to be capable of disciplining our own, of at least trying our own," said Kathleen Duignan, exective director of the Institute of Military Justice in Washington.

She said the likelihood of any plea deals for any of the men will depend on the strength of the evidence the prosecution has against the men. If the evidence is strong against the men, then defense attorneys may be inclined to negotiate, she said.

"But, it will depend on whether the defense thinks it's in their best interests to roll the dice," Duignan said.

In the Haditha case, attorneys for the men from Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment have said for months that the killings were the result of a legitimate action following a massive explosion that killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of El Paso, Texas. The Iraqi victims included six children and five women, all of whom died inside homes near the site of the bombing.

The accused Marines returned from Iraq in April. They were not taken into custody, but were assigned to tasks at Camp Pendleton as the investigation into what happened in Haditha, a city 125 miles northwest of Baghdad, ran its course.

The Haditha case unfolded when the Marine patrol aboard four Humvees was passing through the city about 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2005.

Several of the Marines there that day have told investigators and the civilian attorneys they have hired have said they were told that minutes after the explosion the men were attacked by insurgents armed with AK-47 assault rifles, shots they said were coming from one or more nearby homes.

The first Iraqis to die were five men who emerged from a car and began running. None of those men have been determined by investigators to be insurgents.

The squad radioed word of the attack to commanders, and over the next few hours stormed through several homes in what they said was a search for their attackers.

The shooting that took place in two of the homes appeared justified, sources close to the case have said, but the assault on a third home may have violated the Marine Corps' rules of engagement.

Myers said his client was told the victims were numbers 21, 22 and 23, were all men and he believes they were all in the homes.

Those rules allow a combat operation against any source of fire or suspected insurgent stronghold, but are clear in directing that lethal force not be used against children or apparent civilians unless absolutely necessary.

One week after major elements of the 3rd Battalion returned from Iraq in April, then-1st Marine Division Maj. Gen. Richard Natonksi, announced he was relieving Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani of his post as commanding officer of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment also known as the "Thundering Third." Some reports say Chessani may be among the officers charged with dereliction of duty.

Earlier this week, the attorney for Capt. Luke McConnell, who was in charge of Kilo Company, the company involved in the Haditha incident said his client had been told he will be charged with dereliction of duty.

The mix of politics and the military justice system has been a major component in the Haditha story since it was first reported. Anti-war voices point to Haditha as the Iraq war comparison to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War in which U.S. Army troops killed hundreds of Vietnamese villagers. As in the My Lai case, politicians say the stress faced by U.S. troops in Iraq facing an uniformed enemy in an urban environment is a major factor in what happened at Haditha.

Two months after Time magazine wrote the first story on the Haditha incident, U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn., in May said the Marines overreacted to the death of Terrazas and, acting in rage, "killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

A leading voice in Congress for repositioning some U.S. troops to Kuwait and bringing the rest home, Murtha's remarks prompted a firestorm on Capitol Hill and led to a libel lawsuit filed against him by Wuterich. Murtha, a former Marine, has refused an offer to settle the suit by issuing a public apology and it is uncertain if his position as a federal lawmaker shields him from the suit.

Neal Puckett, one of Wuterich's attorneys, will be here for the news conference and will speak to reporters after the Marine Corps makes its announcement.

Puckett said Wuterich, 26, from Meriden, Conn., has no plans to cooperate with prosecutors because "he didn't do anything wrong."

Theresa Sharratt, mother of one of the enlisted Marines said to be facing charges, Lance. Cpl. Justin Sharratt, also is expected to be on the base and speak to the media this afternoon.

In his lawsuit, Wuterich provided the public account from any of the troops there that day about what happened.

In the lawsuit, Wuterich said five men in a taxi that came upon the scene shortly after the bombing were shot when they fled the vehicle and ignored orders in Arabic. The suit said the military's rules of engagement allowed troops to "shoot suspicious people fleeing a bombing. Therefore in following that policy the Marines opened fire killing the men."

A short time later, Wuterich's suit contends, AK-47 shots were heard and Marines saw bullets striking the ground near their position. A four-man team that included Wuterich entered one of the homes, tossed a fragmentation grenade into a room where they heard voices and then fired a series of "clearing shots." That pattern was repeated in two other homes.

"Any accusation that the Marines 'executed' civilians or deliberately targeted noncombatants is either a horrendous misunderstanding or intentional lie," Wuterich's suit contends.

Lawyers for other Marines involved in the incident have said Wuterich's account is consistent with what their clients have told them.

Critics of the case have contended that witnesses at Haditha, located in the heart of the dangerous Anbar province known as the Sunni Triangle and peppered with insurgents, have misled investigators.

The critics also point to the fact that none of the victims have been exhumed for autopsy because of resistance from their families and therefore no concrete forensic evidence of how they died is available.

Look for updates on today's developments throughout the afternoon.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.