JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — After months of incarceration, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, the alleged ringleader of a troubled gang of soldiers, appeared Tuesday at a hearing aimed at determining whether he should stand trial for war crimes in southern Afghanistan.
The Army, in a 16-count charge sheet, accuses Gibbs of killing three unarmed Afghans, assaulting three other Afghans, possessing finger bones, leg bones and a tooth taken from Afghan corpses, threatening to kill two fellow soldiers and other crimes.
Gibbs, 26, is a tall, broad-shouldered man who arrived in the courtroom in his Army uniform and with a fresh haircut. When asked by an Army investigating officer whether he understood the charges, he declared “Yes, sir,” in a crisp voice.
Then, for most of the morning, he sat quietly as an Army investigator — speaking over a telephone from Afghanistan — recounted statements obtained from fellow soldiers, and was then cross-examined by Phillip Stackhouse, Gibbs’ defense counsel.
The allegations against Gibbs form the core of the most serious U.S. war-crime cases to emerge from the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. They have generated international media coverage and stung the Army as it tries to win the trust of villagers in Kandahar province, where Gibbs and his platoon served with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Since early summer, 12 soldiers have been charged with crimes, including Gibbs and four others accused of participating in one or more of the three slayings that allegedly occurred in January, February and May as the platoon was on patrol.
Gibbs was placed in pretrial confinement in May in Afghanistan and is being held at a facility in Buckley, Wash.
Much of the evidence in the case is in the statements of fellow soldiers who say Gibbs formed a “kill team,” that prosecutors say carried out the slayings of three Afghans. The soldiers also detail Gibbs’ involvement in other crimes, such as attacking a fellow soldier who sought to blow the whistle on hashish smoking or collecting grisly trophies.
“He bragged to the platoon about having fingers from the guys that had been killed,” Spec. Jeremy Morlock, who is also accused of murder, said in a statement.
But Morlock and most of the other soldiers who made those statements invoked their Fifth Amendment rights and will not testify at this week’s hearing, according to Army officials. Prosecutors have submitted sworn statements that these soldiers gave to investigators, along with some videotaped interviews, as part of the official record.
On Tuesday morning, Stackhouse sparred with the Army’s investigative officer, Col. Thomas Malloy, over the inclusion of some of this evidence, such as drawings of crime scenes that he said were not properly authenticated.
In the weeks that follow this hearing, the Army will decide whether to move ahead with a court-martial, in which Gibbs could face a sentence of life imprisonment or death.
