WASHINGTON -- A former Blackwater security guard whose 2014 murder conviction was vacated on appeal was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday, ending the Justice Department's long pursuit of accountability for a 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Baghdad that drew international condemnation during the Iraq War, the U.S. attorney's office for Washington said.
A federal jury deliberated five days before finding Nicholas Slatten, 35, guilty of first-degree murder after a five-week trial in Washington, D.C.
It was the third time since 2014 that Slatten was on trial over the deaths at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad's Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007.
The outcome brings a muted end to an incident that triggered diplomatic and humanitarian protests over the U.S. government's use of private military forces and marked one of the lowest points of the Iraq War.
Prosecutors alleged that Slatten, of Sparta, Tenn., fired the first shots and intentionally set off a shooting rampage that killed or injured 31 civilians, beginning with the death of the driver of a white Kia, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia'y, 19.
In 2014, a jury in Washington convicted Slatten of murder and three fellow Blackwater Worldwide guards of 30 counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. The team was part of a four-vehicle convoy called Raven 23 that was protecting State Department personnel.
But in August 2017, a federal appeals court tossed Slatten's life sentence and ordered a new trial, saying he should have been tried separately from a co-defendant, Paul Slough, 39.
Slough had told investigators days after the shootings that he, not Slatten, fired the first rounds.
Slatten then received a retrial that ended in a hung jury in September, with the defense saying the convoy members had been acting in self-defense.
The third trial started Nov. 5.
At trial, Slatten's defense seized on shifting statements by Blackwater convoy members who had testified against Slatten in his earlier trials.
They included Jimmy Watson, the leader of the four-vehicle convoy and Slatten's vehicle mate, who retreated from earlier testimony to a grand jury that he had heard Slatten fire first, and Jeremy Ridgeway, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and testified for prosecutors in a plea deal.
Slatten's lead defense lawyer, Dane Butswinkas, said to jurors in his closing argument, "Mr. Al Rubia'y's death is a tragedy. There's no doubt about that. But this is not a reason to compound the tragedy, by sending an innocent person to prison for as long as Mr. Ridgeway would have gone had he not cooperated."
Prosecutors argued that Slatten acted out of general hatred for Iraqis and a misguided desire for revenge for the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington.
They said Ridgeway's shifting memory was mistaken, and that Watson's actions were an ongoing attempt to cover up responsibility for the attacks.
Referring to Slatten, prosecutor Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez told jurors, "You know that this man took this sniper rifle, and through this scope he took aim at Ahmed's head and he fired. Boom. And he fired again. Boom. And why?" Campoamor-Sanchez said in his closing argument. "Because, ladies and gentlemen, he thought he could get away with it. Nobody would know. He would never have to answer to people like you sitting in this jury room today."
Prosecutors now face resentencings of three other convicted defendants. Their 30-year terms were set aside by the same three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that vacated Slatten's conviction.
The appeals court ruled the punishment meted out to Slough of Keller, Texas; Evan Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; and Dustin Heard of Maryville, Tenn., violated a constitutional prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment."
The three men received twice the maximum punishment for manslaughter alone after being convicted of using military firearms while committing a felony, an enhanced penalty that was primarily aimed at gang members and had never been used against security contractors given military weapons by the U.S. government.
A Section on 12/20/2018