AFTER MORRIS’S TESTIMONY, LTC Byrd excused him from the room. Latino next called a number of soldiers, witnesses for the prosecution. These included SSG Justin Pizzoferrato, an Able Company soldier who testified that Hill in the FOB synch meeting “made a comment about mishandling, making a mistake with some detainees.” Hill told soldiers that if they heard any rumors to, in Pizzoferrato’s words, “keep it on the down-low.”
On cross-examination, Pizzoferrato told Puckett, “I never witnessed anything. Everything I know about the incident was heard from someone else.”
SPC Allan Moser testified along with Bryan McCollum, the CID agent.
At 1525, Latino called Brigadier General Mark Milley, deputy commanding general for operations for the 101st Airborne Division.
Milley testified by telephone, his voice emanating from a speaker into the Longhorn Conference Room. Neal Puckett asked the general about his visit to Kowte Ashrow. Milley said that Major General Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, had asked him to assess the COP.
“I thought the post was tactically exposed and the soldiers were placed at high risk,” he told Puckett, listing a range of concerns from inadequate defenses to insufficient combat power. “It would surprise me if Colonel Johnson and Lieutenant Colonel DeMartino didn’t see any issues with the security of the COP… I was not happy with it. I didn’t want to see them killed or overrun.”
After his visit, Milley recommended that the COP be closed or turned over to Afghan control, he said.
Puckett asked Milley whether he was surprised to receive the letter from CPT Hill.
“It didn’t shock me that he jumped his chain of command,” Milley said. “It’s ordinary for me.”
He did not take from the letter that Hill “was in a state of crisis,” the general added. “I took it as venting.”
At the defense table, Hill scribbled a note: “Did not jump the chain.” The general had given him an open door.
Puckett then asked for Milley’s opinion on the pressure Hill was under, both from the tension with Battalion and having lost men in combat.
Milley’s answer was unequivocal: “I’m a general officer in the United States Army. There are rules that we all have to live by. There is no amount of pressure that will justify or allow us to commit a war crime. I cannot underwrite the commission of a war crime, and I won’t.”
Hill wasn’t surprised at Milley’s forceful answer. What did surprise him was his use of the phrase “war crime.” It was as though by charging him and Scott with war crimes, the prosecution had set in place a false lexicon that was now the accepted vernacular.
The last witness of the day was SGT Jared Allen, the Alpha Company sergeant who had burst into the coffeehouse during the interrogations and asked Tommy Scott to accompany him to the entry control point. In preparing for the case, Puckett felt the young sergeant would be the strongest witness for the prosecution. As CPT Latino began his questioning, Puckett picked up a folder containing a set of diagrams and placed it on the table before him.
Latino: Why were you going to the coffee shop?
Allen: I originally went to the coffee shop to meet with First Sergeant Scott.
Latino: Why did you need to meet with First Sergeant Scott?
Allen: I don’t remember, something about a SOG, I had some business with him.
Latino: What does SOG stand for?
Allen: Sergeant of the Guard, sir.
Latino: So what did you see when you came upon the coffee shop?
Allen: A number of U.S. Coalition [soldiers] outside, and detainees on the ground. The door was closed.
Latino: The detainees on the ground, were they flex-cuffed, do you remember?
Allen: They were restrained, sir. I don’t really recall that well.
Latino: Were they either blindfolded or gagged or in any way being held down or anything like that?
Allen: They weren’t being held down, sir. They were blindfolded, restrained.
Latino: And what did you do next after you saw that?
Allen: I entered the coffee shop and sat down to wait to talk to First Sergeant Scott, sir.
Latino: What was going on in the coffee shop?
Allen: There were a number of things. Mostly First Sergeant Scott was interviewing one of the detainees. There were other guys who were kind of walking around, detainees sitting down.
Latino: How was he interviewing the detainees?
Allen: At the time, I saw First Sergeant Scott was on top of one of the detainees. Two other soldiers were holding his arms and he was yelling at him.
Latino: What was he yelling?
Allen: At that time, I don’t remember, sir.
Latino: So there were two soldiers holding down the arms?
Allen: I believe so.
Latino: Now, what happened to the detainee when First Sergeant was done asking questions?
Allen: I believe he was taken outside the coffee shop with the others, sir.
Latino: And what happened when that detainee went outside the coffee shop?
Allen: I honestly don’t know.
Prosecutor Runyan: Did you follow the detainee out, or did you stay in the coffee shop?
Allen: I did at one time, ma’am. I don’t remember which time that was. The first one that was taken outside, I believe I stayed inside.
Runyan: From your recollection, what happened next?
Allen: I recall, I stood and walked around. I saw Staff Sergeant [Ron] Rideaux, who was behind the bar. I don’t remember if First Sergeant Scott left or not, but I know eventually they moved on to the next detainee.
Runyan: When you say “moved on to the next detainee,” then what happened?
Allen: They grabbed a different one in the same manner, firing questions. The interpreter was translating. First Sergeant Scott was on that one, kind of the same manner of interrogation.
Runyan: Did he strike that detainee?
Allen: He did.
Runyan: With an open hand?
Allen: Right.
Runyan: Was there anything with food going on that you remember?
Allen: I recall either that detainee… I recall one that had said something positive, and he was rewarded by giving him food. They gave him an MRE.
Runyan: So he didn’t go outside.
Allen: He did not.
Runyan: After the second one, so that was number two that you saw, correct?
Allen: Yes, ma’am.
Runyan: Then what happened after number two?
Allen: There was another detainee, same process. At this point everybody in the room was kind of upset that another one wasn’t cooperating, I guess. This detainee got led outside by Captain Hill, and then I remember First Sergeant Scott was there. I had followed Captain Hill and the detainee out of the building.
Runyan: Did First Sergeant Scott say anything to these detainees that you can recall before they went outside?
Allen: Not that I remember.
Runyan: You eventually followed Captain Hill out with a detainee.
Allen: Yes, ma’am.
Runyan: Can you tell me what happened then?
Allen: He led the detainee out to the back where the others were lying down. After that, the detainee kneeled and Captain Hill fired a shot by his head.
Not true, Hill thought. He glanced at Puckett, who looked unperturbed. Puckett picked up a sheet of paper and began.
Puckett: Sergeant Allen, you’ve been questioned several times about what you saw that day, is that right?
Allen: Yes, sir.
Puckett: You even did a diagram a couple of times, right?
Allen: Yes.
Puckett: I’m going to hand you one now and I want to see if you recognize that. Does that look familiar?
Allen: It does.
Puckett: Did you draw that diagram?
Puckett: When did you draw that diagram? Is it dated?
Allen: On the 4th of September.
Puckett: Who did you draw it for?
Allen: CID.
Puckett: Did they ask you to draw a diagram?
Allen: They did.
Puckett: In drawing the diagram, what were you asked to portray? What were you asked to draw about?
Allen: In this one, sir, they wanted to know where the detainee was, where I was, and where Captain Hill was when the shot was fired.
Puckett: You’ve indicated on that diagram by writing your name next to a triangle where you were, is that right?
Allen: That’s correct.
Puckett: And I think from the legend that you drew, that the triangles mean where U.S. soldiers were, right?
Allen: Yes, sir.
Puckett: And the X’s are where you remember the detainees being placed on the ground, is that right?
Allen: Yes, sir.
Puckett: Isn’t there also—and I highlighted it there—there’s something called “point of impact.” Explain that to me.
Allen: They wanted me to find a way to demonstrate where the bullet would have struck the ground…
Puckett: That place where you said point of impact was, did you actually see a round strike the ground?
Allen: Yes, sir…
Puckett: If you look at that diagram, and you look at labels from top to bottom on the diagram, the significant labels, you’ve got a point of impact, and down from that you have Captain Hill, and down from that you’ve got the detainee?
Allen: Correct.
Puckett: So from your diagram it appears as though Captain Hill is standing between the detainee and the point of impact, is that correct?
Allen: Um, yes, sir.
Puckett: So, from geometry and physics and the fact that someone can’t be in two places at once, it appears from that diagram that if Captain Hill fired to that point of impact—bullets travel very quickly in a straight line in a short distance, don’t they?
Allen: Very rapidly.
Puckett: From that diagram, isn’t it fair to say that what you have represented is that Captain Hill had a detainee on one side of him, could have been behind him. Well, let me ask you this, which way was he facing when he fired the shot? Was he looking at the place where the impact was going to be?
Allen: He was, sir, he was facing the HESCO wall.
Puckett: So, he was facing the HESCO wall? Right?
Allen: That’s where he was looking.
Puckett: By that diagram, that would have put his back to the detainees, am I right?
Allen: No, sir.
Puckett: That’s what your diagram says; do you want to change your diagram today?
Allen: My diagram says his back is to the detainee?
Puckett: No, it doesn’t say that, but you just told me that. You told me he was facing the HESCO barrier.
Allen: No, I said he was looking at HESCO. His body was still oriented in the direction that I indicated.
Puckett: Okay, let me see this. Okay, you say his body was facing to the right, but he was looking over at the HESCO barrier where he was firing?
Allen: Yes, sir.
Puckett: So he was looking where he was shooting, right?
Allen: Absolutely.
Puckett: Okay. By that diagram he’s standing between the point of impact and the detainees, is that right?
Allen: That is correct.
Puckett: The direction that he is firing—follow me—the direction he is firing is away from the detainee, isn’t that correct?
Allen: Yes, sir.
Puckett: Didn’t fire at them, did he?
Allen: No.
Puckett: Now tell me, from the position from where Captain Hill was standing, how many feet away from his own feet did the round impact, from your recollection? In other words, how close to his own feet did he shoot?
Allen: I’d say about two meters’ worth, four or five feet.
Puckett: Two meters is about seven feet or six and a half feet.
Allen: Five or six feet.
Puckett: Five or six feet away from his own feet? How far were his feet from the detainee?
Allen: Two or three feet, sir.
Puckett: So now what you’re telling me is that the round impacted about ten feet away from the detainee, isn’t that correct?
Allen: That is correct.
Puckett: So, you’ve had some weapons training, haven’t you?
Allen: I’d say so.
Puckett: They talk about weapon safety?
Allen: Yes, sir.
Puckett: And you know which end is the business end of a rifle or pistol?
Allen: Yes, sir…
Puckett: So it’s pretty clear from that diagram that the detainee in actuality was never in danger of getting hit by that bullet? It was never fired at him?
Allen: It was perfectly clear that he wasn’t intending to shoot a detainee.
Puckett: He didn’t fire it right down next to his head, where he could have missed and hit the detainee. There’s no way that detainee was in any danger from that weapon, is that correct?
Allen: That is correct.
Puckett had been right about Allen: His testimony had been sure-footed and detailed. Still, Puckett had been able to impeach his most damning testimony—that Hill had fired his pistol near the prisoners’ heads. After his cross, Puckett was confident no one would be able to conclude that Hill had endangered the detainees when he fired his weapon.