Jury finds Anthony Sowell guilty of 11 murders (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – A Cleveland jury on Friday found ex-Marine and convicted rapist Anthony Sowell guilty of the serial killing of 11 women whose decomposed remains were found in and around his home.

Sowell, 51, faces the possibility of the death penalty.

Many of the victims had histories of drug problems or were transients, and their disappearances were not always immediately reported to police. Sowell, who had a previous conviction for raping a pregnant woman, had claimed that bad smells in the area came from a nearby sausage factory.

Police discovered the first two bodies in 2009 after executing a search warrant for Sowell's arrest in response to an assault and rape charge.

In total, more women's bodies were found in and around Sowell's Cleveland house.

Two were found on the third floor, partially covered; one was in a plastic bag in pieces; another was covered with dirt in a crawl space. Two bodies were found in the basement -- one covered in dirt under the stairs, and one skull wrapped in plastic in a red bucket.

Five bodies were found in the backyard, all wrapped in plastic in shallow graves.

Sowell came to live in the Imperial Avenue house with his stepmother after serving 15 years in prison for rape. A balding man with glasses of medium height, he was described by neighbors as helpful, and a snappy dresser.

The first of the 11 homicides occurred in the house in 2007. The house had tenants who moved out after complaining about the smell.

Sowell was arrested shortly after one surviving victim jumped naked out of a window after being raped. At first, she claimed she had been in a car accident, but later told police she was attacked after seeing the bodies recovered from his house.

After police took Sowell in for questioning, he was told about six bodies found at his house and one in the backyard. Sowell responded, "Oh, those," using the plural when only one body had been found in the backyard at the time, according to police testimony.

In a videotaped interrogation by police, Sowell talked about meeting women and bringing them to his house. But he never gives any details about what happened to them or how their remains came to be in his house. "Maybe all I did was strangle ... that's what I did," he says.

Most of the victims were strangled. Some victims were so badly decomposed that the cause of death could not be determined.

The jury found Sowell guilty on 82 of 83 counts -- the not guilty on a single charge of stealing $11 from a surviving assault victim.

A fierce thunderstorm raged outside the courtroom windows as the verdicts were read. Some family members of victims wept, while others nodded their heads in agreement with the guilty counts.

Sowell blinked rapidly but otherwise showed no emotion as the verdicts were read.

After he was told of his right to appeal, he refused to look at Judge Dick Ambrose, and yawned. As he left the courtroom, he put his fists up in the air.

In closing arguments, the prosecution called Sowell a "vile and disgusting" serial killer. The 62 prosecution witnesses included women who said they had fled Sowell's house after being attacked.

One prosecution witness was Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's niece, Lori Frazier, an ex-girlfriend of Sowell, who said he suffered a series of suspicious injuries. Once she saw a deep gash across his head and blood on the floor and walls that he said were the result of a struggle with an intruder.

Family members of some victims have filed suit against the city, complaining about the police's handling of the case. The father of one of the victims said his concerns were dismissed by police because of his daughter's history of drug use.

The defense called no witnesses, but criticized the state's handling of the crime scene investigation and some of the women who testified against Sowell.

The murder victims are Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Nancy Cobbs, Tonia Carmichael, Tishana Culver, Leshanda Long, Amelda Hunter, Michelle Mason, Crystal Dozier and Kim Smith.

Jurors deliberated for about 15 hours before reaching a verdict. On August 1 begins the mitigation phase of the trial, when the jury must determine whether Sowell should be expected.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by Greg McCune)

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Alleged Army ringleader in Afghan murders faces accuser (Reuters)

By Laura L. Myers Laura L. Myers – Thu Jul 21, 10:52 pm ET

TACOMA, Wash (Reuters) – The U.S. Army sergeant charged with murdering unarmed Afghan civilians as ringleader of a rogue combat platoon faced his chief accuser in a military court on Thursday, a soldier who pleaded guilty earlier this year to three killings.

Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs was back in court for a reopened Article 32 hearing, a military justice proceeding roughly equivalent to a grand jury session that determines whether a case gets referred to court-martial for trial.

Prosecutors have cast Gibbs, 26, of Billings, Montana, as the main instigator behind the most serious case of alleged U.S. military atrocities in 10 years of war in Afghanistan.

He is one of five soldiers from the infantry unit formerly known as the 5th Stryker Brigade charged with killing innocent Afghan villagers in cold blood while deployed last year in Kandahar province.

Seven other soldiers were charged with lesser offenses stemming from the investigation, which began as a probe of rampant hashish abuse among the soldiers.

The Stryker Brigade cases, with scores of photographs seized as evidence but sealed from public view by the military, have drawn comparisons to the inflammatory 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

Gibbs was ordered in January to stand trial on three counts of premeditated murder and other offenses. They include charges he beat up a fellow soldier, tried to obstruct an investigation and collected fingers and other body parts from Afghan corpses as war trophies.

An Army judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma granted a defense request to reopen the Article 32 inquiry to give Gibbs' lawyers a chance to cross-examine witnesses who were not previously made available for questioning.

The most anticipated testimony on Thursday came from Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 23, sentenced in March to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder for his role in the same killings in which Gibbs is accused.

'DROP WEAPON'

Echoing previous statements to military investigators in the case, Morlock recounted incidents in which he said Gibbs opened fire on innocent, unarmed Afghans during encounters staged to appear as legitimate combat engagements.

In one such killing, Morlock said, Gibbs planted an AK-47 assault rifle that he carried around as a "drop weapon." In another, he testified, Gibbs tossed a Russian-style hand grenade as he opened fire on his victim to leave the impression that their patrol had come under attack. Morlock later added that he then moved the unexploded grenade closer to the body.

"The idea was to go out and find someone to plant an AK-47 on and say, 'We got shot at,'" said Morlock, whom prosecutors have described as Gibbs' right-hand man in their platoon.

Gibbs sat silently through the eight-hour hearing, seeming alert but largely at ease, even as he stared intently at Morlock during his accuser's testimony. Morlock avoided looking at Gibbs, and the two men never appeared to make eye contact during Morlock's 3-1/2 hours on the witness stand.

During two hours of cross-examination intended by defense lawyer Phillip Stackhouse to undermine Morlock's credibility, Morlock acknowledged a history of alcohol and drug dependence. He also admitted, as he has before, to burning his ex-wife with a cigarette during a bar fight and getting into trouble with the Army for having women in his barracks after hours.

But Gibbs' platoon leader, Captain Roman Ligsay, and a fellow sergeant, Michael Hefner, both testified that Gibbs was a "good squad leader," and neither could recall him ever discussing murder scenarios like those described by Morlock.

Morlock, whose previous statements were considered central to the prosecution's case against his co-defendants, had agreed to testify in open court against Gibbs and others as part of his own plea deal.

In May, Morlock took the stand against another of the five soldiers charged with murder, Private Andrew Holmes.

Morlock and Holmes appeared in separate photos published in March by two magazines showing them crouched over the bloodied corpse of a 15-year-old Afghan -- the son of a village elder -- holding the boy's head up for the camera by his hair.

Gibbs' hearing was set to resume on Friday with more witnesses due to be called, but no decision on whether the case will proceed to court-martial was expected immediately.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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