Soldier gets 35 years for Iraqi murders

A SECOND US soldier was convicted yesterday of murder in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees in 2007 and sentenced to 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty at his court-martial.

Wearing his dress uniform, Sergeant First Class Joseph Mayo of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder at the proceeding at the US Army’s Rose Barracks in southern Germany.

He pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction of justice in the incident, which occurred while he was deployed to Iraq.

Military prosecutors dropped that charge.

The 27-year-old was sentenced to 35 years in prison and will be incarcerated at the military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

In February a military court convicted Sgt Michael Leahy, 28, of Lockport, Illinois, to life in prison with the possibility of parole after he admitted to the execution-style killing of one of the detainees and shooting another. He was acquitted of murder over a separate incident in Baghdad in January 2007.

Four Iraqis were taken into custody in spring 2007 after a shoot out with a patrol. Later that night patrol members took the Iraqis to a remote area and shot them in retribution for the attacks on the unit, according to testimony.