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U.S. NEWS Saturday 5 January 2019
Navy SEAL pleads not guilty

to killing captured ISIS teen

By JULIE WATSON
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A deco-
rated Navy SEAL pleaded
not guilty Friday to charges
of premeditated murder
and other crimes in the
stabbing death of a teen-
age Islamic State prisoner
in Iraq last year and the
shooting of unarmed Iraqi
civilians.
Special Operations Chief
Edward Gallagher will
stand trial between Feb.
19 and March 1 before a
jury that will be one-third
enlisted personnel. Galla-
gher has been jailed since Baby sitter accused
his arrest on Sept. 11, and
a judge said he will deter- of killing boy and
mine next week whether
the 19-year Navy veteran
should be released before giving body to mother
the trial.
The case stands out be- WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) — A
cause of the seriousness of Wisconsin baby sitter who
the allegations against an allegedly killed a 2-month-
elite special warfare op- old boy then pretended he
erator and because pros- was alive when she gave
ecutors' case includes the This 2018 photo provided by Andrea Gallagher shows her hus- the boy back to his moth-
accounts of fellow Navy band, Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher. er has been charged with
SEALs, an extremely tight- Associated Press first-degree intentional ho-
knit group even by military micide.
standards. said Gallagher stabbed the died from injuries from the A criminal complaint filed
At Friday's arraignment, teen in the neck and body airstrike. Friday says 28-year-old
prosecutors handed over with a knife after he was Warpinski, who spoke to Marissa Tietsort of Wausau
1,700 pages of documents, handed over to the SEALs nine members of SEAL caused the infant's death
including text messages in the Iraqi city of Mosul to Team 7, said he was told in October, then put him
they say show Gallagher be treated for wounds sus- Gallagher would fire into in a snowsuit and car seat This undated booking photo
trying to intimidate witness- tained by the Iraqi Army crowds of Iraqis. He is ac- and returned him to his released by Marathon County
Sheriff's Office shows Marissa
es. and its prisoners during an cused of shooting an el- mother — without telling Tietsort of Wausau, Wis.
His attorney, Phil Stack- airstrike in May 2017. derly man carting a water her the child was dead. Associated Press
house, dismissed them as Naval Criminal Investiga- jug in Mosul in June 2017 Authorities found the moth-
"hearsay and double hear- tive Service Special Agent and a girl walking along a er trying to revive the boy, public defender's office
say statements." Stack- Joe Warpinski told the court riverbank in the same area but he had died hours ear- hasn't been returned.
house said his client is being that a SEAL medic told him a month later. lier of blunt force head in- According to the crimi-
falsely accused by disgrun- he believed he had just sta- Investigators told the court juries from multiple impacts nal complaint, the mother
tled SEALs who wanted to bilized the teen when Gal- that Gallagher had threat- to the head. of the 2-month-old boy
get rid of a demanding lagher "walked up without ened to publicly name fel- During a court appear- dropped him and his old-
platoon leader. saying anything at all" and low SEALs if they reported ance Friday, Judge Jill er brother off at Tietsort's
Navy prosecutors have started stabbing him. his actions. Falstad issued a $500,000 home on Oct. 18.
painted a picture of a Afterward, prosecutors say Warpinski said some SEALs cash bond for Tietsort and About two hours later, the
highly trained fighter and he took photos of himself were so concerned that ordered that she have no baby's mother received a
medic going off the rails with the corpse, holding up they did not tell him his contact with children or text from Tietsort, in which
on his eighth deployment, his knife in one hand and sniper rifle settings were with the victim's family, the Tietsort told her that a local
indiscriminately shooting at propping up the body by off so his shooting would Milwaukee Journal Sentinel news website published
Iraqi civilians and stabbing holding the head with his be less accurate and they reported. a story saying she'd been
to death a captured Islam- other hand. He also posed would fire warning shots to Tietsort, who is pregnant charged with child abuse
ic State fighter estimated with the body during his clear away civilians. with her sixth child, also and she isn't supposed to
to be 15 years old, then re-enlistment ceremony There has been specula- faces child abuse charges have contact with chil-
posing with his corpse at his captured in the footage, tion that the case may involving an 11-month-old dren. Tietsort told the moth-
re-enlistment ceremony. Warpinski said. widen to implicate others girl in her care. That charge er not to tell anyone she
If convicted, Gallagher, Warpinski said that when for not reporting what they stems from an August in- was watching her two sons.
who was awarded the another SEAL questioned witnessed. cident. Tietsort was arrest- When the victim's mother
Bronze Star twice, faces life Gallagher, he replied, "I Prosecutors have already ed in that case after the came to pick up her sons
in prison. was working on him, and accused Gallagher's pla- 2-month-old died in Octo- later, the infant was in his
At a two-day preliminary he just died." Gallagher's toon commander, Navy Lt. ber. car seat with a hat pulled
hearing at the Navy base attorney also indicated Jacob Portier, of not acting A message left with the down over his eyes. q
in November, investigators to the court that the teen on the allegations.q