JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — As Army officials weigh whether a case against a staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a pre-dawn rampage will proceed to a court-martial, Robert Bales' defense team says the government's case is incomplete.
And outside experts say a key issue going forward will be to determine whether Bales, who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"There are a number of questions that have not been answered so far in this investigation," defense attorney Emma Scanlan told the investigating officer overseeing the preliminary hearing during closing arguments Tuesday.
AP
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales
Scanlan said that it's still unknown what Bales' state of mind was the evening of the killings. Prosecutors say Bales, 39, slipped away from his remote base at Camp Belambay in southern Afghanistan to attack two villages early on March 11. Among the dead were nine children.
An Army criminal investigations command special agent testified last week that Bales tested positive for steroids three days after the killings, and other soldiers testified that Bales had been drinking the evening of the massacre.
"We've heard that Sgt. Bales was lucid, coherent and responsive," Scanlan said in her closing argument. "We don't know what it means to be on alcohol, steroids and sleeping aids."
But prosecutors, in asking for a court-martial trial with the option of the death penalty, pointed to statements Bales made after he was apprehended, saying that they demonstrated "a clear memory of what he had done, and consciousness of wrong-doing."
Several soldiers testified that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, "I thought I was doing the right thing."
The slayings drew such angry protests that the US temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.
"Terrible, terrible things happened," said prosecutor, Maj. Rob Stelle. "That is clear."
The investigating officer said Tuesday that he would have a written recommendation by the end of the week, but that is just the start of the process. That recommendation goes next to the brigade command, and the ultimate decision would be made by the three-star general on the base. There's no clear sense of how long that could take before a decision is reached on whether to proceed to a court-martial trial.
If a court-martial takes place, it will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the Washington state base south of Seattle, and witnesses would be flown in from Afghanistan.
Army deciding if Bales' Afghan rampage will go to court-martial, defense calls case incomplete
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Army deciding if Bales' Afghan rampage will go to court-martial, defense calls case incomplete
