A federal jury deliberated five days before finding Nicholas A. Slatten, 35, guilty of first-degree murder after a five-week trial in Washington, D.C. [Four Blackwater guards sentenced in Iraq shootings of 31 unarmed civilians]In 2014, a jury in Washington convicted Slatten of murder and three fellow Blackwater Worldwide guards of 30 counts of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. [Mistrial declared in U.S. murder case of Blackwater security guard charged in 2007 Iraqi civilian massacre]The third trial started Nov. 5. At trial, Slatten’s defense seized on shifting statements by Blackwater convoy members who had testified against Slatten in his earlier trials. Thirty Iraqi shooting survivors and relatives of victims testified in person in a 2014 trial, marking the largest number of foreign witnesses to travel to the United States for a criminal trial, prosecutors said at the time.

Source: Washington Post December 19, 2018 17:17 UTC