Jury orders reprimand in Marine training death

Jury orders reprimand in Marine training death
The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Dec 7, 2007 6:22:55 EST

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine who appealed a prison sentence for fatally shooting a comrade during a training exercise in 2002 should be reprimanded and demoted rather than put behind bars and kicked out of the military.

A panel of six Marines deliberated less than three hours Wednesday before handing down the sentence, which came four years after Sgt. Cody Ottley told a judge he thought he put blanks into his rifle, but had loaded real ammunition.

Ottley was among Marines who were practicing searching and seizing buildings when he entered a small room and fired four bullets, killing Pfc. Jeremy R. Purcell, of Provo, Utah, who was playing the enemy.

Ottley pleaded guilty in 2003 to negligent homicide in a deal with prosecutors that would have limited him to a year in jail, though a military judge sentenced the Marine to 18 months in jail and a bad-conduct discharge. He served 10 months of the sentence.

Sentences of a year or more are automatically appealed. In April, a military appeals court found the judge ignored evidence, such as changes in training procedures, that could have benefited Ottley’s case.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/12/ap_marinetrainingdeath_071205/


uhc comment: Blank ammo is not that hard to discern.