Los Angeles – A former Marine sergeant has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the killings of two captured Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah in 2004.
Head shaven and wearing a black suit with an American flag pin, Jose Nazario, 27, answered procedural questions before U.S. Magistrate Judge Oswald Parada. Bail was set at $50,000.
“He absolutely maintains his innocence,” his attorney, Emery Ledger, said.
According to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service criminal complaint, several Marines, whose names are redacted, allege Nazario shot two Iraqi men who had been detained while his squad searched a house.
The complaint states Nazario’s squad had been taking fire from the house. After the troops entered and captured the men, Nazario placed a call on his radio.
“Nazario said that he was asked, ‘Are they dead yet?”‘ the complaint states. When Nazario responded that the captives were still alive, he was allegedly told by the Marine on the radio to “make it happen.”
According to the complaint, that day, Nov. 9, was a day of heavy combat in which one member of Nazario’s squad was killed.
After leaving the military, Nazario was working as a probationary police officer with the Riverside Police Department.
Because he is no longer in the military, his case is being handled in federal court.
The allegations against him surfaced when Ryan Weemer, a former Marine corporal, applied for a job with the Secret Service. Prosecutors claim Weemer described the killings during a polygraph test that included a question about whether he had participated in a wrongful death.
