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Convicted soldier presses for new murder trial

ATLANTA — Former soldier Mario Navarrete was either a criminal who helped murder a fellow infantryman or a reluctant accomplice who tried — and failed — to stop the killing.

One jury has already spoken, convicting Navarrete and another soldier in the 2003 murder of Spc. Richard Davis of St. Charles, Mo., a day after they returned from Iraq. Now Navarrete’s case has landed in the Georgia Supreme Court, where his lawyers asked justices Wednesday to grant him a new trial.

“You had a total breakdown in the adversarial system,” said Ed Dawson, Navarrete’s attorney.

Navarrete, of San Juan, Texas, was one of four former soldiers sentenced in the murder of Davis, who was killed after a scuffle at a nightclub. The case attracted national attention and Navarrete’s lawyers say it served as inspiration for the film “In The Valley of Elah,” a murder mystery which opened last month.

A day after returning from Iraq, Navarrete, Alberto Martinez, Douglas Woodcoff and Jacob Burgoyne joined Davis on a night of drinking that started at a Hooters restaurant in Columbus. Later that night, Davis was kicked out of a topless bar, and after leaving him for an hour, the other four came outside and began fighting him, according to testimony.

Martinez, of Oceanside, Calif., then drove the group to a wooded area and parked the car off the road. After the group started scuffling with Davis again, Martinez took out a knife and stabbed him more than 33 times, according to trial testimony. The soldiers then bought lighter fluid and returned to the woods, where Burgoyne burned Davis’ body while Navarrete served as a lookout, according to court records. The body was discovered several months later.

Navarrete and Martinez were convicted of murder for the killing and sentenced to life in prison. Burgoyne was sentenced to 20 years after he pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his testimony, and Woodcoff was sentenced to five years of probation on a charge of concealing a death.

Navarrete’s attorneys, who say their client tried to stop the killing by urging Martinez to put away the knife, are hoping for a second chance.

Among their arguments, the lawyers contend that Navarrete’s attorney during the 2006 trial was ineffective because he was undergoing chemotherapy at the time, which, Dawson said, could have resulted in a “lack of concentration and a loss of memory.”

Dawson also argued that the trial court should have banned testimony from Army medic Edward Wulff, who said that Davis woke him up one night and told him that Martinez and Navarrete hit and choked him and that he thought they were about to kill him.

Navarrete denied the assault and his lawyers said two other soldiers who had been present — but not called to testify by Navarrete’s attorney — could have vouched for his version of events.

Prosecutor Stacey Jackson dismissed the arguments, saying that Navarrete’s lawyer wasn’t undergoing chemotherapy at the start of the case and had proved he could handle a heavy case load. And he said Wulff’s testimony was crucial, as he was one of Davis’ closest friends.

Jackson carefully described the crime to the justices, telling them that it wasn’t until Davis had already been fatally stabbed in the chest that Navarrete attempted to stop the attack.

“He basically stood back and watched Martinez repeatedly stab the victim,” he said.

“You can’t have it both ways.”