11/22/2008

Associated Press

A weapons analyst testifying Friday in the murder trial of a New York Army National Guard sergeant said the remnants of two grenades found at the crime scene differ from the grenades investigators believe the man could have accessed.

Staff Sgt. Sgt. Alberto Martinez, of Troy, N.Y., has pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder in the deaths of Capt. Phillip Esposito of Suffern, N.Y., and 1st Lt. Louis Allen of Milford, Pa.

Prosecutors argue that Martinez killed the officers by setting off an antipersonnel mine outside their quarters and then detonated several grenades to disguise the killings as a mortar attack.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Friday that weapons tracking expert Jack Berens said the design of the safety handles for two of the three grenades that exploded did not match the weapons that investigators examined and photographed later outside the defendant's office. One of the grenades could have matched.

Martinez faces a possible death sentence if convicted by the jury of officers and senior noncommissioned officers.

In other testimony, Spc. Karolyn Irizarry, who was an assistant in Esposito's office, said she once heard Esposito and Martinez engage in a loud argument. She said the two met frequently and that sometimes Martinez appeared upset after the meetings.

But defense lawyers tried to portray 1st Sgt. Lance Willsey as a likely suspect. Irizarry said the relationship between Willsey and Esposito was odd and distant. But she said she never observed any fights or conflicts between the two.

Irizarry testified that she saw Martinez shortly after the blasts and that he appeared dumbfounded, with "disbelief at what was going on."

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. J.D. Gordon said lawyers, jurors and witnesses in the court-martial will have a week off in early December while the judge holds court in Cuba. Col. Stephen Henley is presiding over scheduled hearings that week at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five alleged conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The Martinez trial began last month and defense lawyers are expected to wrap up their case next week.