Ex-GI convicted of raping, killing Iraqi girl

updated 9:25 p.m. ET May 7, 2009

PADUCAH, Ken. - A federal jury convicted a former soldier Thursday of raping and fatally shooting a 14-year-old girl after killing her parents and younger sister while he was serving in Iraq.

Pfc. Steven Dale Green faces a possible death sentence when the penalty phase of his trial opens Monday in the unusual case of a crime in a war zone being prosecuted in civilian court.

Green, 24, of Midland, Texas, was being tried in federal court because he had been discharged from the Army for a personality disorder before he was charged with the Iraq crimes. Green stared straight ahead as the verdict was read in U.S. District Court in western Kentucky.

Defense attorney Darren Wolff, speaking afterward, said the defense never denied Green's involvement.

"Is this verdict a surprise to us? No. The goal has always been to save our client's life," Wolff said. "And, now we're going to go to the most important phase, which is the sentencing phase and we're going to accomplish that goal."

The lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marisa Ford, declined comment.

The trial began April 27, and jurors deliberated for more than 10 hours beginning Wednesday before finding Green guilty. Jurors didn't look at Green as they entered the courtroom before the verdict was read.

Green's defense team had asked them to consider the "context" of war, saying soldiers in Green's unit of the 101st Airborne Division lacked leadership. Defense attorneys also said the Army missed signs that Green was struggling after the loss of friends in combat and that it offered little help to him and other soldiers in his unit.

The prosecution rested six days into the trial after presenting witnesses who said Green confessed to the crimes and others who put him at the home of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, heard him shoot her family and saw him rape and shoot the girl.

During opening arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Skaret said Green talked frequently of wanting to kill Iraqis, but when pressed, would tell people he wasn't serious. In the weeks before the attack on the family, several soldiers from Green's unit were killed in combat.

Ali Al-mahmouri / AP Mohammed al-Janabi, the uncle of the girl allegedly raped and killed by American soldiers, displays death certificates and identifications on his niece's grave in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, Iraq, in July 2006.

In closing arguments, Ford said the March 12, 2006, crime was planned and premeditated. "This was a crime that was committed in cold blood," she said.

Prosecutors told jurors that the plot against the family was hatched among Green and fellow soldiers who were playing cards and drinking whiskey at a checkpoint. Talk turned to having sex with Iraqi women, when one soldier mentioned the al-Janabi family, who lived nearby, Skaret said.

Soldiers then went to the home where, according to prosecutors, Green pulled the father, mother, and daughters ages 6 and 14 into another room, then pushed the 14-year-old out.

Skaret said Green used a shotgun to kill the three in the room and told the soldiers that the family was dead.

He then raped the girl and shot her, according to Skaret.

As the girl lay helpless, "Steven Green went over to the wall and picked up a gun and he shot her in the face again and again," Skaret said.

Green then used kerosene to set fire to her body.

"They left behind the carnage of all carnage," Skaret said of Green and other soldiers accused in the attack.

Later, Green talked about the killings to superior officers, other soldiers and even civilian friends, Skaret said.

Three other soldiers are serving time in military prison for their roles in the attack, and testified against Green at his trial.

Green's father, John Green, declined to comment on the verdict. But he said he may testify during the penalty phase of the trial.

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