Ex-Marine in controversial video dies

DURHAM, N.C. – Former Marine sniper Robert Richards, a central figure in a 2012 video scandal involving Marines urinating on the corpses of Afghan insurgents, has been found dead at his home in North Carolina.

Richards, 28, died in Jacksonville, outside Camp Lejeune, on Wednesday night, according to his lawyer and friend, Guy Womack. Richards’ wife found his body, Womack said Thursday.

Womack said the death did not appear to be self-inflicted, and there were no signs of a struggle. He said an autopsy was performed Thursday, with toxicological test results expected in about two weeks.

Womack said he suspected the death may be related to medication Richards took for combat wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder. “He was taking a whole cocktail of medications,” he said.

Richards, who left the Marine Corps in 2013 on a medical retirement, pleaded guilty at a court-martial at Camp Lejeune in August 2013 to several charges related to a video that showed Richards and three other Marines urinating on the corpses in Helmand province. He was reduced in rank from sergeant to corporal, but avoided a bad-conduct discharge.

The 39-second video triggered international outrage when it was posted online in January 2012.

One Marine testified that a sergeant in the platoon had been killed earlier in the day by a roadside bomb, and the Marines believed the dead insurgents had been responsible.

Richards was a highly trained sniper who served three tours in Afghanistan. On his second tour, he was badly wounded by a roadside bomb in 2010 that sent shrapnel tearing through his neck and nearly severed his foot. He also suffered back injuries and a traumatic brain injury.

After months of hospital treatment for his wounds, Richards volunteered for a third tour. It was on that tour that the video was taken.