Ex-blackwater contractor gets life sentence in Iraq shootings

WASHINGTON — A former Blackwater security contractor was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for his role in the 2007 shooting of unarmed civilians in Iraq that left 14 people dead.

Federal judge Royce Lamberth issued the sentence after a succession of friends and relatives requested leniency for Nicholas Slatten, who was found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury in December.

Prosecutors charged that Slatten, 35, of Sparta, Tennessee, was the first to fire shots in the September 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians at a crowded traffic circle in Baghdad. Ten men, two women and two boys were killed.

The defense had argued that Slatten and other Blackwater contractors opened fire only after they saw what they mistakenly thought was a potential suicide car bomber moving quickly toward their convoy.

Defense attorney Dane Butswinkas described Slatten, a decorated Army veteran, as “a person of high integrity” whose family members had served in the U.S. military for four generations.

Slatten’s supporters accused prosecutors of scapegoating an innocent man in order to placate Iraqi public opinion. The shootings strained U.s.-iraqi relations and focused intense international scrutiny on the extensive use of private military contractors in Iraq.

In 2014, a jury convicted Slatten and three other contractors — Paul Alvin Slough, Evan Shawn Liberty and Dustin Laurent Heard — who were part of a four-vehicle convoy that was protecting Slatten State Department personnel. An appeals court overturned Slatten’s conviction, saying he should have been tried separately from the three other men.

The 30-year sentences for Slough, Liberty and Heard were vacated on appeal last year. They are to be resentenced by Lamberth on Sept. 5.

Wednesday, Slatten’s father, Darrell, paused in addressing the judge to speak directly to his son, who sat largely impassive.

“Nick, please accept my apology for what your country has done to you,” he said. “We will fight until hell freezes over to correct this travesty of justice.”

But Lamberth dismissed the idea that Slatten was a scapegoat.

“The jury got it exactly right,” Lamberth said. “This was murder.”