rockhound
05-30-2004, 05:34 AM
FORT STEWART, Ga. - Just after the last strains of a bugle call
signaling the end of the day faded across this Army base, two burley
MPs ushered a handcuffed Camilo Mejia out of the courthouse where he
was convicted Friday of desertion and sentenced to a year in prison.
''Viva, Camilo! Bravo, Camilo!'' family and friends shouted as the MPs
put him in the back seat of a patrol car, the first step on an
immediate journey to a military detention facility -- most likely in
Jacksonville; Charleston, S.C.; or Fort Knox, Ky., where he'll spend
the next year.
After a military jury took less than two hours to find the Miami
member of the Florida National Guard guilty, Mejia took the stand in
his sentencing hearing and told the jury he felt no shame for what he
had done.
''I sit here as a free man. I will sit behind bars as a free man. I
strongly believed something had to be done. I followed my conscience
and provided leadership.'' Mejia, 28, said in a calm voice, looking
straight at the four officers and four enlisted soldiers on the jury.
The sentence imposed on Mejia was the maximum the jury could impose
for a desertion conviction, and his attorney said he will appeal.
It was the same sentence received two days earlier by Army Spc. Jeremy
C. Sivits, who pleaded guilty in Baghdad to maltreatment of prisoners
and other charges and agreed to testify against other soldiers in
their prisoner-abuse trials.
------
damned if you do, damned if you don't.
signaling the end of the day faded across this Army base, two burley
MPs ushered a handcuffed Camilo Mejia out of the courthouse where he
was convicted Friday of desertion and sentenced to a year in prison.
''Viva, Camilo! Bravo, Camilo!'' family and friends shouted as the MPs
put him in the back seat of a patrol car, the first step on an
immediate journey to a military detention facility -- most likely in
Jacksonville; Charleston, S.C.; or Fort Knox, Ky., where he'll spend
the next year.
After a military jury took less than two hours to find the Miami
member of the Florida National Guard guilty, Mejia took the stand in
his sentencing hearing and told the jury he felt no shame for what he
had done.
''I sit here as a free man. I will sit behind bars as a free man. I
strongly believed something had to be done. I followed my conscience
and provided leadership.'' Mejia, 28, said in a calm voice, looking
straight at the four officers and four enlisted soldiers on the jury.
The sentence imposed on Mejia was the maximum the jury could impose
for a desertion conviction, and his attorney said he will appeal.
It was the same sentence received two days earlier by Army Spc. Jeremy
C. Sivits, who pleaded guilty in Baghdad to maltreatment of prisoners
and other charges and agreed to testify against other soldiers in
their prisoner-abuse trials.
------
damned if you do, damned if you don't.