JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — An Army staff sergeant accused of masterminding the murders of three Afghan civilians testified at his court-martial Friday, giving his first public denial of involvement in any plot and contradicting the accounts of co-defendants and fellow soldiers who portrayed him as an imposing, bloodthirsty sociopath.
Wearing his green uniform decorated with service ribbons, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs of Billings, Mont., said that from his perspective, the killings last year were legitimate combat engagements. The 6-foot-4 26-year-old answered questions from his lawyer before five military jurors and a judge at the base south of Seattle.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged cutting fingers from the dead Afghans to keep as war trophies. When his lawyer, Phil Stackhouse, asked him why, Gibbs responded: “I guess that’s just a product of war. I’m not proud of it.”
Gibbs is the highest-ranking of five soldiers charged in the killings, which took place in January, February and May of last year. Prosecutors said Gibbs and his co-defendants slaughtered the victims with grenades and machine guns during patrols in Kandahar province, then dropped weapons near their bodies to make them appear to be combatants.
Two co-defendants and other soldiers have testified against him, but Stackhouse said in his opening statement early this week that the co-defendants conspired to blame Gibbs for what they did.
Gibbs’ testimony Friday was at odds with that of the other witnesses, who said he began talking about killing civilians soon after he joined the unit in late 2009. In the second killing, Pvt. Jeremy Morlock — who has pleaded guilty and is serving 24 years for the murders — said Gibbs killed an unarmed man after firing an illicit AK-47 into the wall of a compound and tossing the weapon at the man’s feet to make him appear to have been an enemy.
But Gibbs called the engagement legitimate: The man started firing the AK-47, but the gun jammed, and Spec. Michael Wagnons, who also is charged in that killing, returned fire.
