A military judge granted defense lawyers access to computer files Monday that attorneys said are needed to defend a soldier charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq.
New York National Guard Sgt. Alberto B. Martinez, 39, of Troy, N.Y., is the only soldier known to be charged with killing his direct superior officers in Iraq during the war, a crime known as "fragging."
Martinez is accused of killing Capt. Phillip Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa., by setting off grenades and a mine in their room at one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in June 2005. They were his superior officers in the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York National Guard.
Defense lawyer Maj. John Gregory had sought access to classified and unclassified files, as well as a forensic computer expert to help.
The judge said the defense should have copies of unclassified files and greater access to classified material, and suggested he would assign a qualified agent from the Army's Criminal Investigative Command to the defense team.
The judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, didn't rule on a defense motion to appoint a crime scene investigator. Last week, Parrish ordered the government to pay for an independent investigator for the defense.
Gregory said the defense wants to hire a former director of the Oregon State Police Crime Lab to do forensic tests. Capt. John Benson, a prosecutor, argued that the defense has had access to government experts who examined evidence and the crime scene.
In a similar case, a jury at Fort Bragg sentenced 101st Airborne Division Sgt. Hasan Akbar to death for killing two officers and wounding 14 soldiers in March 2003. He threw grenades into troop tents and fired on soldiers at a camp in Kuwait. Akbar wasn't under the command of the officers who were killed. |