The past seven days of testimony in the Army’s court-martial of alleged Stryker “kill team” ringleader Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs have not been easy on the stomach.
Jurors weighing his fate in a Joint Base Lewis-McChord courtroom since Halloween have taken in gory photos of the Montana soldier and his alleged collaborators posing with the bloodied bodies of dead Afghans they killed.
Jurors saw images of severed and decomposing human fingers Gibbs admitted keeping during his deployment with a Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade.
And they heard disturbing testimony describing his disregard for Afghan lives, such as his willingness to cut digits from dead men like taking “antlers from a deer.”
Now it’s up to the five-soldier jury panel to determine whether Gibbs, 26, is guilty of leading a group of troubled platoonmates in murdering three Afghan noncombatants last year, or if he’s the victim of a plot hashed out by his former friends to frame him.
Attorneys presented those diametrically opposed versions of Gibbs over nearly eight hours of closing arguments Wednesday. He faces a mandatory minimum life sentence if convicted on any of three murder charges, and he could serve time for 12 other criminal charges.
Jurors could announce their verdict Thursday, though they must consider a complicated list of charges ranging from conspiracy to murder to threats against American soldiers.
Gibbs took in the trial with a mostly impassive expression. He choked up twice during his testimony last week, and he seemed to smile only once, the morning of Nov. 1 in a conversation with his wife.
Army prosecutor Maj. Rob Stelle cast him as a Charles Manson-like figure who felt out the members of a platoon with weak leadership when he joined it three months into its deployment to southern Afghanistan.
Stelle said Gibbs misused his “recruiting poster noncommissioned officer” appearance to manipulate junior soldiers into joining him in murder in January, February and May 2010.
He found an eager participant in Spc. Jeremy Morlock, who has pleaded guilty to murdering the three Afghans and testified against Gibbs.
“Sgt. Gibbs had the charisma,” Stelle said. “He had that ‘follow me’ personality. He’s a well-spoken guy, tactically proficient.”
“But it was all a bunch of crap,” Stelle said.
Stelle built his case on testimony from Morlock and another admitted “kill team” participant, Spc. Adam Winfield. Those two directly placed Gibbs at the scene of the May 2010 shooting, which they said they carried out under the squad leader’s direction and with his assistance.
Morlock said Gibbs also murdered an Afghan in February 2010 with an “off the books” AK-47 Gibbs carried to use as a drop weapon. Morlock said Gibbs placed the gun at the feet of his victim to make it appear as if the Afghan shot first.
Gibbs’ connection to the January killing is less clearcut. Morlock killed that victim with Pfc. Andrew Holmes. The Army argues Gibbs planted the idea for that murder and gave Morlock the weapon to do it.
Phil Stackhouse, Gibbs’ attorney, turned Stelle’s arguments around on the Army’s primary witnesses.
Stackhouse didn’t have to try hard to find character flaws in Morlock and Winfield. Both admitted to smoking hashish almost every day while deployed.
Their friendship led them to shift blame to Gibbs in the hopes of getting lighter punishment from the Army, Stackhouse said. Morlock’s plea agreement gave him 24 years in prison instead of a life sentence; Winfield was able to plead to manslaughter, which resulted in a three-year sentence.
“The witnesses that came in here, the core group, traded their testimony for years of their lives,” Stackhouse said. The defense attorney also drove home the Army’s deficiency of physical evidence connecting Gibbs to any of the murders. Prosecutors don’t have forensic evidence or the weapons Gibbs allegedly used to cover up the killings.
Stackhouse also cited testimony from soldiers who contradicted Morlock’s and Winfield’s accounts. Three witnesses said Gibbs was not with Morlock and Winfield when shots rang out during the May 2010 killing.
Others said the February 2010 patrol did not unfold as Morlock described. Their platoon fell under a coordinated attack a couple hours after that shooting – a fact Stackhouse used to bolster his argument that the Afghan killed that day was not an innocent victim, but an enemy combatant who took a shot at Gibbs.
Stelle took the case back in a rebuttal argument in which he called Stackhouse’s defense “ridiculous” because it required jurors to believe that three admitted “kill team” participants pleaded guilty to murdering Afghan fighters in lawful engagements.
“Morlock is a triple murderer serving 24 years in prison,” Stelle said. “The government’s not going to stand here and say ‘Morlock’s a good guy.’
“Ladies and gentlemen, to understand how three murders happen, you need to hear from a triple murderer,” Stelle said.
Adam Ashton: 253-597-8646
adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/military
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