Blackwater Security Guard Convicted in 2007 Mass Shooting of Unarmed Iraqi Civilians

By Michael Collins, USA TODAY

21 December 18

former Blackwater Worldwide security guard has been convicted a second time on a charge that he instigated a mass shooting in Iraq more than a decade ago.

A federal jury convicted Nick Slatten of Sparta, Tennessee, on Wednesday of first-degree murder for his role in a deadly shooting rampage that killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others. It was the third time Slatten had stood trial on the charge.

Jurors deliberated for four days before returning their verdict, which came at the close of a six-week trial in U.S. District Court in Washington – and just three months after a previous trial on the same charge ended in a hung jury.

Slatten's family called the verdict "a devastating blow."

"We are confident that the erroneous legal rulings that deprived Nick of a fair trial and resulted in his wrongful conviction will be corrected," said his sister, Jessica Slatten. "Nick is innocent, and we will never stop fighting to bring him home."

Slatten, 35, remains incarcerated pending sentencing by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. No sentencing date has been set. The murder charge calls for a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony from 34 witnesses, including four who traveled from Iraq to testify.

Slatten disputed the government's arguments that he fired the opening shot that touched off the rampage, which became one of the flashpoints in the war between Iraq and a U.S.-led coalition.

Another guard, Paul Slough of Keller, Texas, said on multiple occasions that he fired the opening shot, not Slatten. Eyewitnesses also pointed to Slough as the initial shooter.

But prosecutors countered that Slough’s statements had been inconsistent. He initially denied to investigators that he had opened fire, then later recanted and claimed he fired the first shots, they said.

During his first trial, Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2014 for his role in the shooting.

A federal appeals court threw out Slatten's conviction last year and ordered that he receive a new trial because he had not been allowed to introduce evidence that Slough fired the first shots. The government’s case hinged on the allegation that Slatten was the initial shooter, the appeals court said.

At his second trial, prosecutors argued that Slatten and other guards opened fire without provocation on innocent Iraqis and used excessive force. Slatten, prosecutors contended, fired the first shots, killing a young, unarmed Iraqi medical student.

That trial ended in a hung jury in September when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after 16 days of deliberations.

The deadly rampage in which Slatten was charged happened in 2007 in Baghdad’s Nisour Square and already has been the subject of investigations by the military, a congressional panel, the FBI and others.

But details of what happened remain in dispute.

Slatten and three other guards – Slough, Dustin Heard of Maryville, Tennessee, and Evan Liberty of Rochester, New Hampshire – were all former armed services members working as private security guards for Blackwater, now known as Academi. The guards’ Raven 23 security team was under contract by the State Department.

On Sept. 16, 2007, their convoy traveled to a crowded traffic circle in downtown Baghdad as part of the effort to evacuate a U.S. diplomat.

At some point, the guards opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. They say the shooting started only after a white Kia sedan driven by the Iraqi medical student lurched out of stopped traffic and approached their four armored vehicles. The men had received intelligence reports that a white Kia might be used as a car bomb, so they feared they were under attack.

The unarmed driver, Ahmed Haithem Ahmed Al Rubia’y, was one of the 14 civilians killed in the attack.

No evidence of a bomb was ever found.