A former Marine testified in federal court Tuesday that he saw Sgt. Jose Nazario standing over a dead Iraqi, with an M-16 in his hands, just seconds after he heard a gunshot from the room where Nazario was holding Iraqi prisoners.
Former Lance Cpl. Corey Carlisle also testified that before he heard the gunshot, he heard Nazario trying to talk a Marine into helping him kill Iraqi prisoners.
Carlisle was the first witness to testify in federal court in Riverside about the events of Nov. 9, 2004, when the Marine squad stormed a house in Fallouja.
"I consider this the worst day in my life, something I will never forget," he told jurors.
Nazario, the squad leader, is charged with manslaughter, assault and use of a firearm in the alleged execution of four unarmed Iraqi prisoners. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case against Nazario has drawn national attention because it is the first time under a little-known 2000 law that a former member of the military is being tried in federal court in an alleged crime committed in combat.
Carlisle, 26, who is now a college student in Salt Lake City, told jurors that he was part of the squad that entered the house and came upon four unarmed Iraqi men. He said the Marines captured the men, and he and others went on to search the house.
During the search, he said, he overheard Nazario asking another Marine to help him kill the Iraqis. He said he heard the other Marine refuse to do so.
Carlisle said he then came upon the Marine with whom Nazario had been talking -- Lance Cpl. James Prentice. Prentice, he said, had already been shaken by the death of a friend a few hours earlier.
"I tried to calm Prentice down. I told him, 'We don't want to be part of this,' " Carlisle said of what was going on in the house. "I tried to find us an exit."
Not long after, as he continued to search the house, he said, he heard a shot fired and found Sgt. Ryan Weemer standing with his 9-millimeter handgun in his hand over one of the Iraqi men, who was dead.
Soon after, he heard a second shot and found Nazario, holding his M-16, standing over another dead Iraqi prisoner. The dead man was lying on his back, shot in the head. The two remaining Iraqi prisoners stood terrified nearby, Carlisle testified. "It's something I won't forget, the dread on their faces," he said. "That's the face I saw on both men -- dread."
