Iraq soldier cleared in deaths of 2 superiors

A soldier was acquitted of murder Thursday in the 2005 bombing deaths of two superiors in Iraq, triggering loud outbursts and gasps from the slain officers’ families.

A military jury found National Guard Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez not guilty of two counts of premeditated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen. Both officers were killed when an anti-personnel mine detonated in a window of their room at a U.S. military base in Iraq in June 2005.

“He slaughtered our husbands and that’s it?” yelled Allen’s widow, Barbara, after the verdict was read. Someone shouted that Martinez was a murderer. The judge quickly ordered the courtroom cleared.

The jury spent two days deliberating after a six-week trial at Ft. Bragg, during which Martinez did not testify. If convicted, the New York National Guard soldier could have faced the death penalty.

“We are pleased that the military justice system worked,” the Martinez family said in a written statement. “Our sympathies go out to the families of the victims.”

Martinez, 41, of Troy, N.Y., was the first soldier from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be accused of killing a direct superior, a crime known as “fragging” during the Vietnam War. All three men belonged to the 42nd Infantry Division.

Esposito, 30, of Suffern, N.Y., worked as an information technology manager in New York City and was Martinez’s company commander. Allen, 34, of Milford, Pa., was a high school science teacher and the company operations officer.