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CID agent testifies in fragging trial

FORT BRAGG, N.C. — Defense attorneys for a New York Army National Guard soldier accused of killing two superior officers in Iraq asked witnesses about the Army’s investigation to trace the antipersonnel mine suspected in the fatal blast.

Special Agent Paul McNelly of the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) was the first witness when testimony resumed in the court-martial of Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez, who has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip Esposito of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis Allen of Milford, Pa.

Prosecutors say Martinez planted and detonated an antipersonnel mine in the window of the officers’ room in 2005. Earlier witnesses have said Martinez and Esposito had a tense relationship because Esposito thought Martinez’s management of the unit’s supply room was lax.

Defense attorney Maj. John Gregory asked McNelly on Monday about an interview he conducted with Staff Sgt. Amy Harlan, a supply noncommissioned officer deployed to the same forward operating base where Martinez and the victims were stationed.

Defense attorneys asked the investigator whether he would have asked Harlan follow-up questions about Claymore mines if he had known she turned one in to Martinez’s unit. That line of questioning prompted an objection from prosecutors, who unsuccessfully argued it was irrelevant to have Army investigators testify about questions that went unasked.

After a military judge ordered the defense to proceed with its line of questioning, McNelly later said he couldn’t be certain whether he asked Harlan about Claymore mines.

Another witness, Lt. Col. Joseph Richiazzi, testified he inspected Claymore mines at two forward operating bases in Iraq. All the mines at the base where the officers were killed were accounted for, but one was missing from another base.

In other testimony later in the day, Maj. Linda Thorburn said she approached an Army legal officer about Martinez’s behavior after he made an inappropriate derogatory comment about Esposito.

Martinez is the first soldier from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be accused of killing a direct superior, a crime known as “fragging” during the Vietnam war. He could face the death penalty if convicted.