A defense lawyer told a military court Thursday that witnesses had provided insufficient evidence to support charges that a U.S. Army sergeant was involved in killing four Iraqi men found bound, blindfolded, shot and dumped in a Baghdad canal.
Sgt. Joseph P. Mayo is alleged to have taken part in shooting the detainees.
The Article 32 hearing, the military equivalent of a civilian grand jury, began Wednesday to assess the charges against Mayo and decide whether to refer him for a court-martial. A decision is not expected this week.
The first witness to testify Thursday, Joshua Hartson, was a former soldier in Mayo's unit. He was asked whether Mayo had said anything to him regarding the shootings, or told him anything about covering up the incident.
"No," Hartson told the court by telephone from Victorville, California, where he lives after leaving the military on a medical discharge.
An investigator in the case currently in Iraq, Special Agent Brad McCarthy, testified he had no physical evidence "like bodies or guns" to implicate Mayo and didn't know if there was any.
