Published: Dec 18, 2004
Modified: Dec 18, 2004 6:01 AM
Guardsman killed Iraqi after sex

By JAY PRICE, Staff Writer

A North Carolina National Guard member thought to be the first U.S.
soldier convicted of murdering an Iraqi said he "snapped" and shot the
17-year-old boy after they had consensual sex, according to
court-martial records released this week.

Pvt. Federico Daniel Merida, 21, of Biscoe, a tiny town south of
Asheboro, pleaded guilty during a court-martial in Iraq to shooting

Iraqi national guard private, whose name the Army withheld.

Merida was sentenced Sept. 25 to 25 years in prison and reduced in

He will be dishonorably discharged.

Army officials at Forward Operating Base Danger, where the

was held, withheld details of the case, saying the records had to be
approved by a general. They released the records to The News &

on Thursday.

Maj. Neal E. O'Brien said Army rules required that most of the names

inked out, including that of the victim. The Los Angeles Times

shortly after the court-martial that the victim's name was Falah

According to the records, Zaggam and Merida were on guard duty May 11

a tower on the perimeter of an Army camp near Tikrit in northern Iraq.
About 10:30 p.m., Merida shot Zaggam repeatedly with his M-4 carbine.

The "gay panic" motive was the third that Merida offered. He first

investigators that Zaggam demanded money at gunpoint. Later, he said

killed Zaggam because the boy forced him to have sex.

Interviewed a third time by skeptical investigators, Merida said he

angry after the two had consensual sex. When the boy went to the
latrine, Merida began to craft an excuse for killing him.

According to the records, Merida told investigators that he picked up
Zaggam's AK-47 rifle and chambered a bullet so that it was ready to
fire. He then pulled out the magazine, which held the rest of the
bullets, and put it aside.

When Zaggam returned, Merida handed the gun back. Merida then grabbed
the boy's trigger finger, forcing him to fire a bullet into the

Merida then radioed the camp headquarters and said Zaggam had tried to
kill him after demanding money. Merida dropped the radio and raised

own gun, a short version of the M-16 assault rifle.

Merida first shot at the floor of the guard tower, then into Zaggam's
legs, according to an account that Merida signed for the

Zaggam tried to wrest away the rifle, and Merida shot him in the

Zaggam clutched at a railing and fell down the stairs as Merida kept
shooting.

"The accused fired a couple more rounds into the lifeless body ...

took his magazine out and set it aside, put his weapon down, and

... to report that he had just killed the [Iraqi national guard]

who had tried to rob him," the account signed by Merida said.

The boy was hit by 11 bullets.

In an agreement with the Army that limited his prison sentence to no
more than 25 years, Merida pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder

guilty to murder without premeditation. He pleaded guilty to two

of giving false statements in his initial explanations. He was found

guilty of dereliction of duty for having consensual sex while he

have been guarding the camp.

During the court-martial, Merida apologized to the victim's family.

"He was a son, a brother, someone very important to them," he said. "I
took someone they loved and cared for."

Plea for leniency

Friends and family members wrote the Army asking for a reduction in
Merida's sentence, citing the fact that his son, a toddler, needs him
and that his wife speaks little English and relies on him. Merida was
born in Veracruz, Mexico, and moved to the United States as a child.

A man who answered the phone at the family's home in Biscoe declined

identify himself or say whether the family had heard from Merida
recently. "I don't know nothing, man," he said, and he hung up.

Merida is confined at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., a Leavenworth

said.

Merida is a member of the 113th Field Artillery Battalion's Battery B,
based in Monroe. He deployed to Iraq early this year with an N.C.
National Guard brigade of several thousand soldiers, which was placed
under command of the 1st Infantry Division.

Maj. Robert Carver, a spokesman at the N.C. National Guard's Raleigh
headquarters, said Guard leaders here knew little about the case. He
said that if there was anything positive about the unpleasant case it
was that it should serve notice to Iraqis about how justice should

"Obviously one of the things we're trying to do in Iraq is foster an
environment that includes the rule of law rather than dictatorship,

hopefully this demonstrates that to the Iraqis," he said. "The rule of
law was applied, and the guilty have been punished."


Staff writer Jay Price can be reached at 829-4526 or
jprice@newsobserver.com.

Published: Dec 18, 2004
Modified: Dec 18, 2004 6:01 AM
Guardsman killed Iraqi after sex

By JAY PRICE, Staff Writer

A North Carolina National Guard member thought to be the first U.S.
soldier convicted of murdering an Iraqi said he "snapped" and shot the
17-year-old boy after they had consensual sex, according to
court-martial records released this week.