US soldier was 'lucid' after Afghan massacre

A US soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers was "lucid" and admitted to the crimes, prosecutors said Monday as he appeared in court for the first time. Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, 39, had been drinking Jack Daniels and watching a violent action movie with comrades before heading out of his base twice to massacre victims including women and children in two nearby villages. His wife and lawyer have claimed that Bales, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, could not remember what he did on the night of March 11 in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province. But prosecutors refuted that at the start of a so-called Article 32 hearing, held to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold a full court martial over the killings, the worst US military crime in the decade-old war. "He was lucid, he was coherent, he was responsive," said prosecutor Joseph Morse at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, adding that he admitted to the crimes, reportedly saying: "It's bad, really bad." Sporting a shaved head and wearing fatigues, Bales answered the judge's questions in a clear voice, responding: "Sir, yes sir." He alternated between sitting forward and slumping against the back of his chair. According to Morse, the night began in the room of a fellow soldier, Sergeant Jason McLaughlin, where they drank Jack Daniels and Diet Pepsi while watching the 2004 movie "Man on Fire" starring Denzel Washington. At some point after leaving McLaughlin's room, Bale then allegedly entered the room of Sergeant Clayton Blackshear and had a rambling conversation. Morse said the prosecution will show during the two-week pre-trial hearing that Bales told Blackshear that he had an "ugly" wife and an unhappy family life back in the United States. He also expressed frustration that those responsible for an IED attack the previous week had not been found and brought to justice. Sometime around midnight, Bales left the base, heading south to a nearby village, and visited two houses. At the first, he shot one man while the others in the house fled across the street to a neighbor's house. Bales then entered the second house, killing three more while injuring six with gunshots to the face, neck, thigh, and knees. Bales is then alleged to have returned to base and conversed with at least one soldier before leaving once again, this time headed in the opposite direction. The prosecutor quoted Bales as telling a friend, when back at the base before heading out again: "Hey Mac, I just shot some people in Alkozai," according to the LA Times. The friend told him to "quit messing around" because he needed to go back to sleep, it said. "You will hear him apologize multiple times, not for doing the killings, but for letting the team down. You're going to hear Staff Sgt. Bales say, 'It's bad, it's really bad.'" the prosecutor said, according to the newspaper. The second excursion was the most violent -- Bales allegedly visited two Afghan dwellings, again killing one person in the first home. In the second home, he murdered 11 people, including women and children. He then gathered the bodies in the center of the room, setting them alight, according to the prosecutor. Morse underlined the heinous nature of the crimes committed; noting that 17 of the 22 victims had been women or children and almost all of them had been shot in the head. Witnesses and relatives of victims are expected to testify via videolink from Afghanistan next week. Bales faces 16 counts of murder, six of attempted murder, seven of assault, two of using drugs and one of drinking alcohol. On the eve of the hearing, Bales' wife Kari reiterated her belief that he is innocent. "My husband did not do this," Kari Bales told ABC News, adding that he sounded shocked when she told him by phone what he was accused of. "He was like, 'What? What you talking about?'... And I was actually the one that had told him how many people had died, and that included women and children, and he was blown away," she told the broadcaster.