I’m late on this one; sorry about that.
23 year-old Specialist James P. Barker plead guilty last week to raping a 14 year-old girl and then killing her and her family.
Specialist Barker and three other members of Company B of the First Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, were charged with raping the girl and killing her, her parents and her 7-year-old sister in the family’s home in Mahmudiya, southwest of Baghdad. It is a volatile area known to American soldiers as the “triangle of death.�Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, Pfc. Bryan L. Howard and Sgt. Paul E. Cortez are also charged with rape, premeditated murder and arson; military prosecutors accused the men of burning the girl’s body using kerosene in an effort to conceal evidence. A fifth soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, is charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the crimes.
The plea means that Barker will not face the death penalty, though he will most likely be given a life sentence.
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I believe Private Barker was sentenced to life in prison with a possibility of parole in 20 years on the 16th... now I guess we'll see if the guys who didn't come forward get anything like comparable sentences.