Fragging court-martial set to begin

[unhappycamper]

Fragging court-martial set to begin
By Estes Thompson - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Oct 22, 2008 5:40:26 EDT

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — The court-martial of the first soldier accused of killing a direct superior in Iraq opens Wednesday, three years after a suspicious blast tore through the living quarters of two National Guard officers.

The slow pace has frustrated the widows of Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, who have so far attended every hearing in the case against Staff Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez. The trial judge has pledged to hear testimony on holidays and weekends, but a case bedeviled by delays — jury selection alone took two weeks — is still expected to run through the end of the year.

“I never imagined that it would take more than three years to bring him to trial,” said Esposito’s wife, Siobhan. “My life irrevocably changed (in 2005). In an instant, I became a single parent and had to balance raising our daughter on my own while seeking justice for Phillip’s murder.”

Martinez, 41, of Troy, N.Y., is accused of planting a Claymore anti-personnel mine that detonated on June 7, 2005, in a window just outside the officers’ room at Saddam Hussein’s Water Palace in Tikrit. The officers died the next day. At a hearing in Kuwait early in the case, a witness testified Martinez had said twice that he disliked Esposito and was going to “frag” him.

Defense attorneys have consistently declined to comment about the case, but have said in court there is no evidence linking Martinez to the killings. He was only charged, they said, because he was openly feuding with Esposito, a by-the-book West Point graduate who took over a relaxed National Guard unit.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_fraggingtrial_102208/%2e