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Atty's: War vet won't testify at other vet's trial
2008-11-13
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Defying the terms of his plea agreement, an Iraq war veteran will not testify against a fellow soldier charged with murdering another veteran after a drunken dispute, his lawyers said Wednesday. Bruce Bastien will not testify at the trial of Louis Bressler, who is charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 1 fatal shooting Spc. Kevin Shields, Bastien's attorneys told the judge at Bressler's trial. Bastien is serving 60 years in prison as part of a plea agreement that required him to testify against Bressler in Shields' death and in the August 2007 death of fellow soldier Robert James. Bastien pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder in Shields' death and to conspiracy to commit murder in James' death. Deputy District Attorney Jack Roth told El Paso County District Judge Theresa Cisneros that he had not decided whether to refile first-degree murder and other charges against Bastien that would carry a mandatory life sentence. "He's got 60 years and he's got to deal with it," Roth said as he mulled the decision. Prosecutors say Bressler killed Shields because he knew too much about robberies the men planned to commit, and because he lost a fight to Shields earlier that night. Bressler's defense attorneys say he is being framed for Shields' death by Bastien and Kenneth Eastridge, a former soldier who pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder in Shields' death and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Earlier in the trial, Eastridge testified that he, Bastien, Bressler and Shields spent a long night drinking into the early hours of Dec. 1 -- Shields' birthday. He said that after stopping on a drunken ride home, Bressler and Shields got into a fight, and that Shields shoved Bressler to the ground. Eastridge testified that he later gave Bressler a .38-caliber handgun, and that Bressler used it to kill Shields. Eastridge, Bastien and Bressler are three of at least five soldiers who were deployed to Iraq with the 4th Brigade Combat Team accused in slayings in the past 15 months. A sixth faces attempted murder charges. Army commanders said they have formed a task force to identify any common factors in the slayings allegedly committed by the soldiers.
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