• 02
  • October
    2011

In April 2010, a Marine Captain who earned three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in Afghanistan and Iraq was involved in a head-on collision with another driver in Tampa, Florida. The Marine had reportedly been driving the wrong way down the road with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.

The other driver died in the collision, and the Marine was charged with DUI and vehicular manslaughter. It seemed like an open-and-shut case.

In an unusual turn of events, however, the man has pled not guilty by reason of insanity. His criminal defense attorney says that the decorated Marine is not responsible for the drunk driving accident because he suffered severe brain trauma and developed PTSD from his experiences in the military. The veteran, who is a graduate of Colorado State University, frequently suffers from blackouts and dissociative episodes. His lawyer says that he was in the midst of just such a blackout on the night of the fatal accident.

Remarkably, the victim's widow is not opposing the insanity plea. She believes the military may have some responsibility for her husband's tragic death. And, a team of Marine Corps investigators who examined the case share that sentiment as well. They wrote an 860-page report to top brass, pointing out that the Corps needs to be much more thorough in evaluating and treating vets with PTSD, especially if they also experienced brain injuries, which intensify the effects of PTSD.

In this particular case, the investigators found that the Corps had reason to know that the soldier had a brain injury and PTSD, but had transferred him to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa despite those facts, without even offering him treatment. They had reason to know that he was on several prescription medications and was abusing alcohol, was suffering from dizzy spells, flashbacks, headaches, dissociative episodes, memory problems and blackouts.

Nevertheless, they transferred him to a strange new state. Two days after he arrived in Tampa, he was involved in the fatal drunk-driving accident.

During his four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he nearly died from blood loss after a rocket attack, he was wounded combat twice, and his convey was hit by roadside bombs 7 separate times. He witnessed a "a bus full of casualties and a sea of blood gushing out." He participated in digging the mass grave, and he dug some of the civilians back up when their relatives came looking for the victims.

The Marine himself is racked with guilt. "I don't know why I wasn't killed any of the times I was wounded."I wish I had been," his father quotes him as saying. "At least it would have been honorable. And an innocent man wouldn't be dead."

The soldier's criminal defense attorney says that both his client and the victim of the fatal accident are "casualties of war." The prosecution has not commented on the case.

If the Marine is convicted of vehicular manslaughter, he faces a minimum mandatory sentence of four years in prison.

Source:

Associated Press, "Decorated Marine who grew up near Mobile claims brain trauma led to fatal DUI crash," Sept. 23, 2011