BERLIN — A U.S. Army sergeant pleaded guilty to murder Monday in the deaths of four Iraqi prisoners in 2007, telling a military court that the slayings were “in the best interest of my soldiers.”
Sgt. First Class Joseph Mayo, 27, was sentenced to 35 years in prison and became the fourth soldier convicted in the killings in Baghdad in the spring of 2007. Each prisoner was shot in the back of the head while handcuffed and blindfolded, then dumped into a canal, according to testimony at the Army’s Rose Barracks Courthouse in Vilseck, Germany.
The Iraqis had been arrested on suspicion of attacking U.S. military patrols after they were found in possession of rifles and ammunition. Frustrated by a lack of evidence to keep them in detention, members of Mayo’s infantry unit took the men to a remote area and executed them, according to testimony and evidence in the case.
![[prison 19] Caption: This is Cellhouse 1, Pod A, from ground level inside the Sterling Correctional Facility which is located outside of Sterling, Colorado Thursday afternoon. Photographer: LEW SHERMAN Title: FREELANCE Credit: SPECIAL TO THE POST City: Sterling State: CO Country: USA Date: 19990617 ObjectName: prison 19 Keyword: PUBDATE____1999_06_22](/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20151207__denverpostp1.jpg?w=538 "20151207__denverpost~p1.jpg")
