Story Published:
May 18, 2006 at 1:01 PM PST
Story Updated:
Aug 31, 2006 at 7:26 AM PST
FORT LEWIS, WASH. - Military attorneys on Thursday
repeatedly objected to evidence and witness testimony in the case
of a soldier accused of brutally mutilating his teenage wife,
bringing to a crawl a murder trial that was expected to last only
five days.
The government in the past four days has presented more than 10
witnesses - evidence specialists, family and mental health workers
- as its builds its case against Spc. Brandon Bare, accused in the
death of Nabila Bare, 18, at this Army post south of Tacoma.
The young woman was found in the couple's kitchen on July 12,
2005, a pentagram carved into her stomach and stabbed at least 71
times, including with a meat cleaver that remained in her neck.
Bare, 20, of Wilkesboro, N.C., is charged with premeditated
murder and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors contend Bare planned to kill his wife and had been
scanning Web sites for pentagrams. On Thursday, the government
attempted to show a military jury Internet sites it said he visited
before the killing in search of such diagrams.
Defense attorney Capt. Patrick O'Brien argued the evidence
didn't provide complete information of what the computer user was
doing. "It's just a snapshot," he said.
Army Judge Col. Mark Toole agreed the evidence was not relevant
and rejected it.
Lead prosecutor Capt. Scott DiRocco was allowed to submit what
the government says was Bare's page on MySpace.com, a social
networking Web site where users can chat with friends and list
their interests.
The page shows serial killers Richard Ramirez and Charles Manson
as people the user would like to meet.
In interviews with investigators, Bare said he'd thought about
strangling Nabila Bare, and had thought of Ramirez, the Los Angeles
"Night Stalker" convicted of 13 murders.
Army special agent Patrick Rasmussen testified that only a
person with Bare's username and password would have been able to
enter information under his MySpace profile.
Bare apparently last visited the site July, 11, 2005, one day
before the killing.
The panel of officers and enlisted personnel also heard
testimony from Nabila Bare's best friend, Jennifer Pearce, who said
the young woman had begun considering divorce in April 2005.
Her friend would call her twice a week, Pearce said, usually
after a fight with her husband.
"She'd get really mad at him, call me up and tell me how she
wanted a divorce," Pearce said.
In mid-May, Nabila Bare picked up divorce papers from the legal
office on the post, but she never completed them, Pearce testified.
The defense Thursday afternoon had yet to present its case. Fort
Lewis officials earlier had estimated the trial would last through
Friday.
