Attorney: 'Sport' Killings Could Have Been Prevented

(Sept. 28) -- The attorney representing one of the five U.S. soldiers accused of killing Afghan citizens for sport says that his client tried to stop fellow platoon members from murdering civilians during his deployment and that quicker action by the Army could have prevented two of the deaths.

"Normally, we don't offer information to the press about our clients, but his parents really are interested in getting this story out because they feel so badly," Army Spc. Adam Winfield's attorney, Neal A. Puckett, told AOL News. "[Winfield's father] tried his best to keep his son from harm. Then the next thing they hear is ... he is accused of a murder that should not have happened."

Winfield, of Cape Coral, Fla., is among five soldiers from the Stryker Combat Brigade who are charged with murder for their alleged involvement in a plot to randomly kill civilians for sport in Kandahar Province. The four other soldiers charged in the case are Cpl. Jeremy Morlock of Wasilla, Alaska; Spc. Michael Wagnon of Las Vegas; Pfc. Andrew Holmes of Boise, Idaho; and Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Mont.

All of the defendants have denied the charges.

According to statements made by Morlock, Gibbs was the mastermind behind the "kill team" and started forming it in December 2009. Prosecutors have also alleged that some members of the platoon mutilated Afghan corpses and collected fingers and other body parts from their victims, The Associated Press reported.

The first of the three alleged murders occurred on Jan. 15 when an Afghan man named Gul Mudin was killed in the village of La Mohammed Kalay. Morlock and Holmes allegedly carried out the murder under the direction of Gibbs.

According to Puckett, Winfield was inside a military vehicle when the shooting took place and thought it was the result of a direct engagement.

"Later, they were talking about a scenario or setup, so he was concerned about that," Puckett said. "Gibbs was bragging about it, and [Winfield] heard [Gibbs] had done similar things in Iraq and was carrying around severed human finger bones and things like that."

Puckett said Winfield had been warned not to mention anything about the incident to anyone.

"Morlock told him that Gibbs had mentioned that if he sensed Adam wasn't loyal, he was going to drop a heavy piece of equipment on his head in the motor pool to make it look like he was killed accidentally," Puckett said. "It wasn't an imagined threat. Earlier, Gibbs, Morlock and a couple of others beat the crap out of another guy in the platoon [that] they believed had ratted them out for using hashish."

The alleged threats scared Winfield, but he still felt he needed to let someone know about the alleged homicide, Puckett said. Unsure who he could trust, Winfield attempted to call his father, retired Marine Christopher Winfield. When he was unable to reach his father on the phone, the two managed to connect on Facebook.

"He told his dad that he was afraid that this was happening, that maybe his staff sergeant was committing murder," Puckett said. "His dad immediately got on the phone [and] called CID [U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command] and made four or five different calls to various army commands. It was Valentine's Day, so he either had to leave a voice mail message or talk to someone that said [Adam] needed to report it to his chain of command."

One of the individuals Christopher Winfield spoke with allegedly expressed shock over the allegations but did not offer any assistance.

"[He] told me that unless Adam came forward over there, that there was nothing he could do until Adam got back to Fort Lewis," Christopher Winfield said in a sworn statement.

According to Puckett, Adam Winfield was afraid to speak with any of his commanding officers because he felt he would "be at risk."

Puckett said none of the agencies that Winfield's father contacted followed up on the phone calls, something he says ultimately allowed two additional killings to occur.

The second shooting happened on Feb. 22 when Gibbs and Wagnon allegedly shot and killed an unarmed Afghan citizen named Marach Agha. Afterward, they allegedly placed an assault rifle next to the victim's body to justify the killing. The Army has charged Gibbs, Morlock and Wagnon with the murder.

Less than three months later, an Afghan citizen named Mullah Adadhdad was allegedly murdered. Gibbs, Morlock and Winfield have been charged in that killing.

"[Winfield] witnessed his staff sergeant setting up [Adadhdad] to make it look like he had thrown a grenade at his soldiers," Puckett said. "Then, [Gibbs] threw a grenade at [Adadhdad's] feet and killed him. He [then] ordered Adam and Morlock to open fire. Adam, of course, fired high to miss because he wasn't going to shoot a person that wasn't a threat, but he didn't really have a choice to not fire when he was ordered to fire."

Military police learned about the killings a few days later during an investigation into the reported use of hashish by some of the soldiers in the 3rd Platoon.

In addition to the murder charges against Gibbs, the Army has also charged him with threatening Winfield and urging him to lie about drug use in the platoon.

In May, military officials met with Christopher Winfield. They obtained a statement from him about the calls he made, and he provided them with phone logs and copies of the Facebook messages he exchanged with his son. The military has yet to publicly comment on the status of the investigation into Winfield's attempts to report the Jan. 15 shooting.

Holmes' civilian defense attorney, Daniel Conway, told The Washington Post that his client "was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Gibbs' lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse, told The Associated Press his client says the shootings were "appropriate engagements" and denies there was a conspiracy to murder Afghans.

The attorney representing Morlock, the soldier who gave an in-depth statement to investigators about the alleged murder plot, told MSNBC.com his client suffers from traumatic brain injuries and was under the influence of prescription drugs when he spoke with investigators.

Like the other attorneys, Puckett says his client was not involved in a murder plot and is being falsely accused.

"[Investigators] don't have any forensic evidence, they don't have a body, they don't have an autopsy [and] all they have is eyewitness accounts," Puckett said. "So they're charging everybody that was there as [having] potentially been knowingly involved."

A hearing to determine whether the military has enough evidence to proceed with its case against Morlock began Monday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington. After hearing testimony from both sides, the presiding officer said he would decide "in my own time" whether to recommend a full court-martial.

The other defendants are expected to make their own court appearances in the coming weeks. If convicted, all of them could face the death penalty or life in prison.

Meanwhile, support for Adam Winfield is beginning to grown online. Supporters recently started the "I Support Specialist Adam Winfield" Facebook group, and, as of today, 417 people have joined.

Puckett hopes his client will eventually be cleared of any wrongdoing but also says he is haunted by the deaths that occurred after Winfield's father contacted military officials about the first alleged murder.

"The irony of all this and the thing that keeps me awake at night is that we know that two Afghan civilians would still be alive if the Army had gone to check this out," Puckett said. "We are representing somebody who ought not have been caught up in this at all."