Minn. soldier guilty of killing two squad members

By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press

FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) - An Army sergeant was found guilty Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 slayings of his squad leader and another U.S. soldier at a patrol base in Iraq.

Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich of Minneapolis will face a sentence of life in prison after the 12-member jury at Fort Stewart returned a non-unanimous guilty verdict Wednesday. The death penalty is an option only when a guilty verdict for premeditated murder is unanimous in a court martial.

A sentencing hearing was set to begin Thursday, and the jury will decide between life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

During the trial, Bozicevich, 41, admitted he shot Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley Durbin of Dallas at a patrol base outside Baghdad on September 14, 2008, after they critiqued him for making mistakes in an unforgiving war zone.

Bozicevich testified to the jury he opened fire only because the two soldiers aimed rifles at his head and threatened to kill him if he didn't sign off on their written critiques. Prosecutors insisted he grabbed his gun in anger after their wounded his pride.

Dawson had decided to strip Bozicevich of his leadership role as a four-man team leader and give the job to Durbin, a soldier 13 years younger than Bozicevich and one who had just recently earned his sergeant's stripes.

"That was the final blow to his ego," prosecutor Maj. Scott Ford told the jurors in his closing statement Tuesday. "This is a man who thinks he's better than anyone around him. And anytime he fails, it's someone else's fault. After he kills two fellow soldiers in a cold, calculating way, he tells you it's their fault."

Durbin, of Dallas, was found shot seven times in a corner of the base's small communications station where Bozicevich had been on duty. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., fell in the dirt outside with six bullets in his back and another lodged in the rifle slung over his shoulder.

Several witnesses said they saw Bozicevich chasing Dawson while firing at him, including two final shots while he stood directly over him.

While several soldiers testified to hearing gunshots in the night and witnessing the aftermath -- including Bozicevich screaming "Kill me!" as he was pinned to the ground -- the accused soldier is the only survivor of the confrontation with Dawson and Durbin that preceded the shooting.

His defense attorney, Charles Gittins, urged jurors to give more weight to Bozicevich's story: that Dawson and Durbin aimed rifles at his head, he disarmed them using martial-arts moves and managed to grab his own rifle before bolting from the room and scuffling with Dawson outside. Bozicevich says he fired his gun blindly in hopes of getting clear -- "I sprayed and I prayed."

"Sgt. Bozicevich, with no history of violence, was trying to do a good job," Gittins said. "He was scared. He was in fear for his life, and he acted accordingly."

However, Bozicevich's account also contained elements of conspiracy. He testified he asked Dawson if he was working with "the Black Masons" and that Dawson confirmed it by replying, "We Masons do what we want to do."

A psychiatrist later testified for the defense that Bozicevich suffers from mental delusions, particularly irrational feelings that people are out to get him.

"Sgt. Bozicevich didn't make this up," Gittins said, noting the soldier had mentioned "Black Masons" in an e-mail to a friend three days before the shootings. "This is something he really believed."

All three soldiers served in 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment of the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division. The slayings occurred while Bozicevich was in Iraq on his second combat tour in three years on active duty. He had previously served 15 years in the Army Reserve in Minnesota.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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