Ga. Soldier's Capital Murder Trial Goes To Jury
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) -- Both Army prosecutors and defense attorneys agree: A sergeant opened fire on his squad leader and another soldier poised to take over the suspect's leadership role in Iraq after he made several mistakes in an unforgiving war zone.
But did Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich kill two members of his infantry unit to avenge his bruised ego? Or did he shoot them in self-defense because they threatened him at gunpoint to sign reports critical of his performance?
After hearing more than a month of testimony, a military jury at Fort Stewart began deliberations Tuesday in Bozicevich's court-martial. Panelists heard closings arguments from both sides that offered wildly conflicting accounts of why Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin ended up dead from multiple gunshots on Sept. 14, 2008, at a small patrol base outside Baghdad.
The 12-member jury recessed for the evening after deliberating for about 3 1/2 hours and were to resume Wednesday morning. If jurors unanimously find 41-year-old Bozicevich of Minneapolis guilty of premeditated murder, he will face either the death penalty or a sentence of life in prison. Under military law, he could also be convicted by as few as eight jurors -- but then death would not be an option.
Maj. Scott Ford, an Army prosecutor, argued the slayings weren't much different from workplace shootings in civilian life. Dawson had decided to strip Bozicevich of his responsibility as a four-man team leader and give the job to Durbin, a man 13 years younger who had just earned his sergeant's stripes a few months prior.
"That was the final blow to his ego," Ford told the jurors. "This is a man who thinks he's better than anyone around him. And anytime he fails, it's someone else's fault. After he kills two fellow soldiers in a cold, calculating way, he tells you it's their fault."
Durbin, of Dallas, was found shot seven times in a corner of the base's small communications station where Bozicevich had been on duty. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., fell in the dirt outside with six bullets in his back and another lodged in the rifle slung over his shoulder. Several witnesses said they saw Bozicevich chasing Dawson while firing at him, including two final shots while he stood directly over him.
While several soldiers testified to hearing gunshots in the night and witnessing the aftermath -- including Bozicevich screaming "Kill me!" as he was pinned to the ground -- the accused soldier is the only survivor of the confrontation with Dawson and Durbin that preceded the shooting.
His defense attorney, Charles Gittins, urged jurors to give more weight to Bozicevich's story: that Dawson and Durbin aimed rifles at his head, he disarmed them using martial-arts moves and managed to grab his own rifle before bolting from the room and scuffling with Dawson outside. Bozicevich says he fired his gun blindly in hopes of getting clear -- "I sprayed and I prayed."
"Sgt. Bozicevich, with no history of violence, was trying to do a good job," Gittins said. "He was scared. He was in fear for his life, and he acted accordingly."
However, Bozicevich's account also includes elements of conspiracy. He testified he asked Dawson if he was working with "the Black Masons" and that Dawson confirmed it by replying, "We Masons do what we want to do."
A psychiatrist later testified for the defense that Bozicevich suffers from mental delusions, particularly irrational feelings that people are out to get him.
"Sgt. Bozicevich didn't make this up," Gittins said, noting the soldier had mentioned "Black Masons" in an e-mail to a friend three days before the shootings. "This is something he really believed."
Ford dismissed the suspect's story as something "out of a Steven Seagal movie."
All three soldiers served in 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment of the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division. The slayings occurred while Bozicevich was in Iraq on his second combat tour in three years on active duty. He had previously served 15 years in the Army Reserve in Minnesota.
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