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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Third soldier pleads guilty to murders

David Zucchino Los Angeles Times

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Pfc. Corey Clagett confessed his crimes in clinical detail Thursday and said he was profoundly sorry for what he had done.

His eyes downcast, Clagett told a military court that he had conspired with two other U.S. soldiers last May to murder three unarmed Iraqi men they had taken prisoner. He shot two, he said quietly. He and his comrades staged a phony crime scene, then lied about it all.

In an agreement with prosecutors, Clagett, 22, pleaded guilty to premeditated murder, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. A military judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison. Clagett will be eligible for parole after serving a little more than five years, his military lawyer said.

“We were gonna kill ‘em for no reason,” Clagett told the judge, describing how his squad leader convened a meeting during a combat mission May 9 and announced that the three detainees were going to be killed.

He is the third of four soldiers charged in the case to plead guilty to reduced charges. Clagett had faced a life sentence without parole if convicted. The plea deal will reduce his rank to private and strip him of pay and benefits.

Clagett’s admission Thursday was a reversal from the vigorous public defense he and his mother had mounted since the soldier was charged last summer. They had said that Clagett’s commanders ordered his unit to kill every military-age male they encountered, and they accused the military of betraying a young soldier who risked his life for his country.

The murders took place on a marshy island on Tharthar Lake, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, as Clagett’s squad from the 101st Airborne Division attacked what their commanders had described as an al-Qaida training camp teeming with terrorists. Instead, the soldiers encountered two women, a baby girl and four unarmed Iraqi men.

A 70-year-old man was shot dead as the soldiers assaulted a building. Later, Clagett said, he and Spc. William Hunsaker cut plastic handcuffs off the other three men and ordered them to run. As they fled, he said, he shot two; Hunsaker shot the third.