Archived Story
Friday, February 23, 2007
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, of Barstow was sentenced to 100 years in prison Thursday for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family last year.
Cortez also was given a dishonorable discharge. He will be eligible for parole in 10 years under the terms of his plea agreement. Cortez’s p l e a a g re e - ment spared him the possibility of the death penalty. Cortez plead guilty this week to four counts of felony murder, rape and conspiracy to rape in a case considered among the worst atrocities by U.S. military personnel in Iraq. In his plea agreement, he said he conspired with three other soldiers from the Fort Campbell-based 101st Airborne Division to rape 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi. The girl, her parents and a younger sister were all killed in the attack.
After testimony had ended in the case, the judge, Col. Stephen R. Henley, asked Sgt. Paul E. Cortez if he had anything to say.
Cortez, 24, responded that he didn’t know why he took part in the rape and murders.
“I still don’t have an answer,” he said, choking up and tears rolling down his face. “I don’t know why. I wish I hadn’t. The lives of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for all of the pain and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family.”
Earlier Thursday, a psychologist, who has written books about combat stress, and comrades of Cortez testified about the mental hardships of war during a hearing to determine Cortez’s sentence. Five soldiers who served with Cortez in Iraq said conditions there were harsh and soldiers were without running water at times and suffered from sleep deprivation. They said Cortez’s actions were out of character.
“I just never would have seen it coming,” said Staff Sgt. Tim Briggs, who has known Cortez for five years and served with him in Iraq.
Psychologist Charles Figley said Cortez and the other sol- diers likely suffered stress brought on by fatigue and trauma.
“It eats you up,” Figley said. “It’s a horrible thing. This is not unique. We’ve seen this in other wars.”
Prosecutors said Thursday that no matter how stressful the conditions, it was no excuse for the actions of Cortez and the other soldiers.
Another soldier, former private Steven D. Green, shot the girl’s father, mother and younger sister in the bedroom, Cortez said this week. Green raped the girl in front of Cortez and then shot her multiple times in the head, he said.
Cortez also testified that the soldiers attempted to burn the girl’s body, burned their clothes and threw the murder weapon, an AK-47, into a canal in an attempt to get rid of evidence.
Cortez was found not guilty of more serious charges of premeditated murder and conspiracy to premeditated murder after prosecutors failed to convince a judge that Cortez knew of what they said was Green’s intent to murder the whole family.
Green and two other soldiers remain to be tried.
Pfc. Jesse Spielman, 22, and Pfc. Bryan Howard, 19, await courts-martial in the case. Green, who is accused of being the ringleader but was discharged from the military before being charged, will be prosecuted in a federal court in Kentucky.