Jury deliberating case of Marine reservist accused of killing Iraqi soldier on guard duty

A jury must determine whether a Marine reservist committed an act of murder or self-defense when he killed an Iraqi soldier at a guard post in Fallujah last year.

A panel of three officers and five enlisted persons was to resume deliberations Thursday in the case of Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes, who is charged with unpremeditated murder and assault in the Dec. 31, 2006, killing.

The jury began deliberating Wednesday in the case of Holmes, 22. He is accused of stabbing to death Pvt. Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin. If convicted, he faces life in prison with the possibility of parole.

During closing arguments, attorneys painted stark contrasts of what happened in the pre-dawn hours after Hassin allegedly opened his cell phone and then lit a cigarette.

Holmes' attorney, Steve Cook, told jurors the men were not supposed to display any illuminated objects because of the threat of sniper fire, and Holmes tried repeatedly to get Hassin to extinguish the cigarette, Cook has said.

Holmes told investigators he knocked the cigarette from the soldier's hand and the two got into a fight, falling to the ground.

During the struggle, Holmes felt Hassin reaching for his loaded AK-47, so he stabbed him with a bayonet that doubles as a utility knife that was attached to his jacket, Cook has said.

But prosecutors say it was a case of murder.

"Not a scratch. Not a blemish. ... There is not a mark on him. There is no self-defense," Capt. Brett Miner told jurors. "There can be lawful killings during a time of war. This is not a lawful killing."

Miner told jurors that Holmes killed the soldier and then set up the scene, firing the soldier's AK-47. He said Holmes "mauled" Hassin with 17 stab wounds, 26 slashes and a chop to the face that nearly severed his nose.

Miner, who did not offer a motive for the alleged murder, asked jurors to recall earlier testimony that showed Hassin was a "peaceful man," a picture painted by prosecution witnesses, including Marines, who had worked the post with him.

"There might be some people who think Iraqi lives are worthless. They are not," Miner said. "Don't fall into a trap of characterizing Pvt. Hassin as an unsympathetic victim. He's not."

But Cook told jurors that Holmes had never worked the guard post before and had never worked with Hassin.

"Everything he had learned and experienced up to this point told him to be suspicious" of the soldier, Cook said.

He cited evidence presented during the court-martial that showed cell phones and cigarettes are often used by Iraqis to alert or contact insurgents.

Holmes, who is being held in the brig at Camp Pendleton, enlisted in the Marine reserves in May 2004 and was on his first deployment in Iraq, Cook said. He is from the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment.