FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - A soldier was sentenced Thursday to 90 years in prison 
with the possibility of parole for conspiring to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl 
and kill her and her family. 
Spc. James P. Barker, one of four Fort Campbell soldiers accused in the March 
12 rape and killings, pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against the 
others to avoid the death penalty.
 
 
 | 
    Identification cards issued by the 
 Iraqi government show Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi (C) in 1993 with a date 
 of birth of August 19, 1991, her mother Fakhriya Taha Muheisin al-Janabi 
 (L), in 1990, and her father Qasim Hamza Rasheed al-Janabi, in 2006. One 
 of four U.S. soldiers accused of raping the 14-year-old girl before 
 murdering her and her family pleaded guilty to the charges on Wednesday at 
 the start of his court-martial at a Kentucky military base. 
 [Reuters]
  
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"This court sentences you to 
be confined for the length of your natural life, with the eligibility of 
parole," said Lt. Col. Richard Anderson, the military judge presiding over the 
court-martial.
Under the plea agreement, Barker got a life sentence but will not serve more 
than 90 years in prison, Anderson said. He will be eligible for parole in 20 
years.
Barker, 23, showed no reaction when the sentence was read. Afterward, he 
smoked a cigarette outside as a military bailiff watched over him. He grinned 
but made no remarks as reporters passed by.
Earlier Thursday, Barker wept during his closing statement, accepted 
responsibility for the rape and killings and said violence he encountered left 
him "angry and mean" when it came to Iraqis.
"I want the people of Iraq to know that I did not go there to do the terrible 
things that I did," Barker said, his voice quivering as he began to weep. "I do 
not ask anyone to forgive me today."
After Barker's sentencing, military prosecutors declined to comment because 
three other soldiers have yet to be tried in the case. Defense attorneys planned 
a news conference.
Barker confessed Wednesday to the crimes as part of a plea agreement to avoid 
a possible death penalty that requires him to testify against the others.
In his closing statement, Barker said Iraq made him angry and violent.
"To live there, to survive there, I became angry and mean. The mean part of 
me made me strong on patrols. It made me brave in fire fights," Barker said. "I 
loved my friends, my fellow soldiers and my leaders, but I began to hate 
everyone else in Iraq."
During testimony intended to show the judge that Barker could be 
rehabilitated, Barker's fellow soldiers described weeks with little support and 
sleep while manning distant checkpoints.
Capt. William Fischbach, the lead prosecutor, told the court that such 
conditions were no excuse for Barker, who led the group to the family's house, 
and that no one deserved such unspeakable horrors.
"This burned-out corpse that used to be a 14-year-old girl never fired 
bullets or lobbed mortars," Fischbach said as he held pictures of the crime 
scene. "Society should not have to bear the risk of the accused among them ever 
again."
The killings in Mahmoudiya, a village about 20 miles south of Baghdad, were 
among the worst in a series of alleged attacks on civilians and other abuses by 
military personnel in Iraq.
The defendants are accused of burning the girl's body to conceal the crime.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, and Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman, 22, members of the 101st 
Airborne Division along with Barker, have also been charged. Cortez has deferred 
entering a plea, and Spielman will be arraigned in December. Pfc. Bryan L. 
Howard, 19, also deferred entering a plea at his arraignment in October.
Private Steven Green, 21, pleaded not guilty last week to civilian charges 
including murder and sexual assault. He was discharged from the Army for a 
"personality disorder" before the allegations became known, and prosecutors have 
yet to say whether they will pursue the death penalty against him. 
In earlier testimony, Barker described in detail how he raped Abeer Qassim 
al-Janabi with Cortez and Green before Green killed the girl, her younger sister 
and parents. 
"Cortez pushed her to the ground. I went towards the top of her and kind of 
held her hands down while Cortez proceeded to lift her dress up," he said. 
"Around that time I heard shots coming from a room next door." 
Howard, Cortez and Spielman could face the death penalty if convicted. Cortez 
and Spielman are both being held in confinement, and Howard is restricted to 
post. 
Barker did not name Spielman and Howard as participants in the rape and 
murders but said Spielman was at the house when the assault took place and had 
come knowing what the others intended to do. Prosecutors on Thursday said Howard 
had been left behind at a checkpoint.