At JBLM, attorney pounds away at key Army witness's credibility
CHRISTIAN HILL
The attorney for a local soldier and alleged member of a so-called Afghan kill team used a hearing Monday and Tuesday to stage an all-out assault on the government’s key witness in the case.
The witness, Pvt. Jeremy Morlock, has told investigators that Spc. Michael Wagnon consented to the murder of an unarmed villager Feb. 22, 2010. Morlock and Wagnon were Stryker brigade platoon-mates from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. They and three others are charged in a conspiracy for allegedly murdering three noncombatants during their 2009-10 deployment to southern Afghanistan.
Wagnon’s attorney, Colby Vokey, told the investigating officer he should disregard Morlock’s statement based on Morlock’s history of substance abuse, other troubles and contradictory statements to investigators.
Vokey said Morlock changed his story to win the best plea deal from prosecutors. He described him as the least credible witness he’d encountered in more than a decade practicing military law.
“The truth to Morlock has become what he can make it, what he can manipulate it to be,” Vokey said during his closing statement Tuesday.
Morlock maintained that he told the truth. He pleaded guilty to all three murders and agreed to testify against other soldiers in exchange for a 23-year prison sentence.
Morlock’s testimony took up the bulk of Wagnon’s Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a grand jury.
The soldier from Wasilla, Alaska, initially told investigators that he had no idea whether Wagnon knew of the plot but told Vokey on Monday he wasn’t being truthful at the time.
“I’m telling you, sir, that was not a true statement because Wagnon knew what was going on,” Morlock said.
The bulk of the hearing’s first day Monday delved into Morlock’s substance abuse and troubles in Afghanistan and at Lewis-McChord.
Morlock acknowledged he drank a bottle of whiskey and usually a 12-pack of beer for 104 consecutive days leading to his deployment.
Once in Afghanistan, Morlock said he ingested a daily cocktail of medication “to get the day started” and frequently smoked hashish obtained from Afghans during searches at traffic-control points.
Morlock acknowledged he took a van that was parked at the Kandahar air base without permission so he could shuttle the soldiers in his platoon. He said he stopped driving it when ordered to do so by a superior.
He disputed that he stole the vehicle.
“The gentle term that gets thrown around is ‘acquiring things,’” he said.
In another incident, Morlock acknowledged that he cut off the bolt on a freezer in a dining facility and retrieved a pallet of energy drinks. He said he could have got them for free standing in line.
“It was easier to go that route, I suppose,” he said.
He also admitted he received help from a female soldier he had sex with so he wouldn’t fail a screening for brain injuries. Morlock said his unit was short of soldiers, and “it was just a way to stay on the field.”
At Lewis-McChord, he faced nonjudical punishment for having females in his barracks after hours and for failure to report for a training exercise because he was hung over and didn’t set his alarm.
He said he received 14 days of extra duty for the first infraction but wasn’t punished for the other incident.
Morlock said he voluntarily entered the Army’s substance-abuse treatment program for marijuana use prior to deployment but stopped after attending between two and five counseling sessions because of training demands.
“My problem was not my unit’s problem, I guess,” he said.
Each morning in Afghanistan, he took 800 milligrams of ibuprofen, two or four muscle relaxers and codeine-laced Tylenol, if it was available, he said. In addition to smoking hashish, he tried opium a couple times, he said. He said he was never high during a mission, although Vokey said his earlier statement contradicted that statement.
The testimony of other soldiers Tuesday cast doubt on Morlock’s version of events and supported Wagnon’s contention that he believed the unit was under attack.
Pvt. Michael Lecroy said he was recovering from injuries with Morlock at an air base in Afghanistan when Morlock broke down one night and told Lecroy he “felt guilt and remorse for staging murders.”
Lecroy recounted another time when he overheard Morlock talking to Spc. Adam Winfield, another of the 5th Stryker Brigade soldiers accused of murder. Morlock allegedly said they would beat the charges by saying they were following the orders of superiors and would implicate as many people as possible.
“I can’t believe these dudes are saying this in front of me,” Lecroy said he recalled thinking at the time.
Vokey also submitted a sworn statement from Pvt. Ronald Washington that Morlock told him during their incarceration that Wagnon “had nothing to do” with the plot. Washington didn’t know Morlock prior to the conversation. Washington is in the midst of his own court-martial and was unable to testify Tuesday.
Staff Sgt. Kris Sprague, a squad leader, said he initially stood up for Morlock but eventually concluded that what he told people was “60 percent truth, 40 percent (expletive).”
Sprague said he was immediately suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the February 2010 shooting and doubted Wagnon was involved.
“It was my belief he was more than likely in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said.
Now that Wagnon’s pretrial hearing is complete, the investigating officer, Maj. Michael Liles, will recommend whether the father of three from Las Vegas should be court-martialed.
Liles earlier concluded there was insufficient evidence that Wagnon was aware of the plot, but Lewis-McChord’s commanding general, Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, decided Wagnon should face a court-martial on murder and conspiracy charges.
Liles reopened the hearing after Vokey argued that Morlock’s statement about Wagnon wasn’t properly entered as evidence. Morlock reached his plea agreement after Wagnon’s first pretrial hearing concluded late last year.
