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Court-martial ordered for Fallujah corporal

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A senior commander at Camp Pendleton ordered that a corporal be tried at a general court-martial on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the 2004 shooting death of an unknown detainee in Fallujah, Marine officials said Friday.

Sgt. Ryan G. Weemer, 25, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he’s convicted on the murder charge.

Weemer, through his attorneys, has denied the charges, which stem from actions he and two members of his squad took inside a house Nov. 9, 2004, in the open days of the Battle of Fallujah.

In charges approved by Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command and I Marine Expeditionary Force, military prosecutors allege Weemer “willfully failed” to follow military rules of engagement during Operation Phantom Fury and failed to follow rules on the handling and safeguarding of detainees and enemy prisoners of war.

Helland “made his decision after consideration of information developed from investigations by Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigators, as well as evidence produced during an Article 32 investigation hearing,” officials said in a statement announcing the charges.

Weemer is one of three men under investigation by military and federal investigators for the shootings, in which four unidentified men were killed as Weemer’s platoon and company with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, battled with insurgents and fought to clear buildings and streets of the city.

Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was charged in May on similar military charges and is awaiting his court-martial. Their former squad leader, Jose L. Nazario, who had left the Corps, was indicted and charged by federal prosecutors and is scheduled for a trial in Riverside, Calif., later this month.

In May and June, the drama in the cases escalated when federal judges ordered Weemer and Nelson confined in a federal detention center on charges of contempt of court after each Marine refused to be interviewed by a federal grand jury in the case against Nazario. They were released from the detention on July 3.