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By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press
      

FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) - An Army sergeant was found guilty
Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 slayings
of his squad leader and another U.S. soldier at a patrol base in
Iraq.


      Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich of Minneapolis will face a sentence of
life in prison after the 12-member jury at Fort Stewart returned a
non-unanimous guilty verdict Wednesday. The death penalty is an
option only when a guilty verdict for premeditated murder is
unanimous in a court martial.


      A sentencing hearing was set to begin Thursday, and the jury
will decide between life in prison with or without the possibility
of parole.


      During the trial, Bozicevich, 41, admitted he shot Staff Sgt.
Darris Dawson of Pensacola, Fla., and Sgt. Wesley Durbin of Dallas
at a patrol base outside Baghdad on September 14, 2008, after they
critiqued him for making mistakes in an unforgiving war zone.


      Bozicevich testified to the jury he opened fire only because the
two soldiers aimed rifles at his head and threatened to kill him if
he didn't sign off on their written critiques. Prosecutors insisted
he grabbed his gun in anger after their wounded his pride.


      Dawson had decided to strip Bozicevich of his leadership role as
a four-man team leader and give the job to Durbin, a soldier 13
years younger than Bozicevich and one who had just recently earned
his sergeant's stripes.


      "That was the final blow to his ego," prosecutor Maj. Scott
Ford told the jurors in his closing statement Tuesday. "This is a
man who thinks he's better than anyone around him. And anytime he
fails, it's someone else's fault. After he kills two fellow
soldiers in a cold, calculating way, he tells you it's their
fault."


      Durbin, of Dallas, was found shot seven times in a corner of the
base's small communications station where Bozicevich had been on
duty. Dawson, 24, of Pensacola, Fla., fell in the dirt outside with
six bullets in his back and another lodged in the rifle slung over
his shoulder. 


Several witnesses said they saw Bozicevich chasing
Dawson while firing at him, including two final shots while he
stood directly over him.


      While several soldiers testified to hearing gunshots in the
night and witnessing the aftermath -- including Bozicevich screaming
"Kill me!" as he was pinned to the ground -- the accused soldier
is the only survivor of the confrontation with Dawson and Durbin
that preceded the shooting.


      His defense attorney, Charles Gittins, urged jurors to give more
weight to Bozicevich's story: that Dawson and Durbin aimed rifles
at his head, he disarmed them using martial-arts moves and managed
to grab his own rifle before bolting from the room and scuffling
with Dawson outside. Bozicevich says he fired his gun blindly in
hopes of getting clear -- "I sprayed and I prayed."
     

 "Sgt. Bozicevich, with no history of violence, was trying to do
a good job," Gittins said. "He was scared. He was in fear for his
life, and he acted accordingly."
      

However, Bozicevich's account also contained elements of
conspiracy. He testified he asked Dawson if he was working with
"the Black Masons" and that Dawson confirmed it by replying, "We
Masons do what we want to do."
     

 A psychiatrist later testified for the defense that Bozicevich
suffers from mental delusions, particularly irrational feelings
that people are out to get him.
    

  "Sgt. Bozicevich didn't make this up," Gittins said, noting
the soldier had mentioned "Black Masons" in an e-mail to a friend
three days before the shootings. "This is something he really
believed."
     

 All three soldiers served in 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry
Regiment of the Fort Stewart-based 3rd Infantry Division. The
slayings occurred while Bozicevich was in Iraq on his second combat
tour in three years on active duty. He had previously served 15
years in the Army Reserve in Minnesota.
      

Gallery

Minneapolis soldier accused of killing squad members in Iraq

Crime, Law and Justice

An Army sergeant from Minneapolis was found guilty
Wednesday of two counts of premeditated murder in the 2008 shooting deaths of his squad leader and another U.S. soldier at a patrol base in Iraq.

Minn. soldier guilty of killing two squad members

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