Sergeant Urinated on Body in Haditha

NY Times, May 10, 2007

By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., May 9 — A marine sergeant testified on Wednesday that he urinated on the bloody remains of one of five unarmed Iraqi men whom his squad leader had fatally shot in late 2005 moments after a roadside bomb had killed one of their comrades in Haditha.

The marine, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, said at a hearing here that he had urinated on the dead Iraqi’s head out of anger that Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, known as T.J. was killed by the bomb, planted by Sunni Arab insurgents in a region of Anbar Province that American forces were battling to control.

“I know it was a bad thing what I done, but I done it because I was angry T.J. was dead,” Sergeant Dela Cruz said in a monotone. Under oath and with a grant of immunity from the prosecution, he testified that his squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, had ordered the five unarmed Iraqis out of a car and fired six to eight rounds into them as they stood with their arms raised over their heads.

“I watched him shooting, sir, at the Iraqis,” Sergeant Dela Cruz said. He walked around the car to inspect the bodies, he said. “They were dead.” From 10 feet away, he said, he sprayed the bodies with automatic fire from his service rifle and then urinated on the bullet-ripped head of one man.

Sergeant Dela Cruz said that Staff Sergeant Wuterich had told the squad, “If anybody asks, they were running away, and the Iraqi Army shot them.”

Staff Sergeant Wuterich’s lawyers have said that he had fired on the five civilians after they ran from the car and defied his order to stop.

The Iraqis — four of military age and one a taxi driver — had driven up to where a Marine convoy was struck by the roadside bomb, drawing instant suspicion from Staff Sergeant Wuterich and his men, military investigators have said. But they were carrying no weapons when they were stopped, ordered out of the vehicle and fatally shot.

Marine prosecutors charged Staff Sergeant Wuterich, Sergeant Dela Cruz and two other marines in December with murder in the killings of a total of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005.

Last month, in exchange for Sergeant Dela Cruz’s testimony against the other marines, prosecutors dropped all five counts of unpremeditated murder that he faced.
Four Marine officers are also charged in the case, accused of failing to properly investigate the civilian deaths. Wednesday’s proceedings was the second day of a hearing for one of those officers, Capt. Randy W. Stone, a military lawyer, to determine if enough evidence exists to refer the charges against him to court martial.