A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty Wednesday to executing 16 Afghan civilians  — many of them women and children — and said he couldn't explain why he did it.

"I've asked that question a million times since then, and there's not a good reason in the world for why I did the horrible things I did," Staff Sgt. Robert Bales told a military judge.

Bales, who struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, admitted he aimed to kill during two rogue raids on family compounds in Kandahar province in March 2012.

"I formed the intent as I raised my weapon," he said.

He recounted grappling with an older woman as he entered one compound.

"Upon completion of that struggle, I did form the intent to kill anyone in that compound," he said.

Asked whether the woman was armed in way way, Bales replied, "No, sir, she was not.'

Bales spoke in a clear, emotionless voice as he went through each of the 16 killings, describing how he left his base, went to the village and systematically gunned down defenseless civilians with an M4 military assault rifle and 9mm handgun.

He ended each chilling confession with the statement, "This act was without legal justification."

He said he did not remember setting a compound on fire, but did not dispute it.

"There was a kerosene lantern in the room, and based on the evidence ... that lantern was used to set those people on fire," he said.

"I remember there being a lantern in the room, remember there being a fire, remember there were matches in my pocket," he added.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP, file

Mohammed Wazir, seen here with his only surviving son, Habib Shahin, 3, lost 11 family members in the attacks by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty on Wednesday.

"But to say I remember throwing it on those people, I don't recall that. But I have seen pictures and it's the only thing that makes sense, sir."

The judge, Col. Jefferey Nance, asked if Bales believed he was "authorized or justified or acting in self defense" when he shot and burned the civilians.

"No, sir," he replied.

"Do you believe you conduct was wrong?" Nance asked.

"Yes, sir," Bales replied.

His recounting of the atrocities in a military courtroom in Washington state came after he pleaded guilty to premeditated murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault. He pleaded not guilty to a charge that involved a stolen laptop.

In August, a jury will determine if his life sentence will include the possibility of parole. Bales requested that one-third of the panel be comprised of enlisted members, not just officers.

Bales' lawyers have said the married father of two suffered from PTSD and brain injury after four combat deployments and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol the night of the raids on family compounds in Kandahar province.

Prosecutors have said the massacre was preplanned and that Bales was angry about a bomb blast near his outpost that wounded a fellow soldier.

This story was originally published on Wed Jun 5, 2013 8:41 PM EDT

A Colorado judge allowed Aurora massacre suspect James Holmes to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday and ordered an independent mental health evaluation.

The grad-school dropout's next stop is the state hospital in Pueblo, Colo., where a sanity exam could take months, legal experts said.

"I don't think any of the families were surprised," said Sandy Phillips, mother of Jessica Ghawi, who was one of 12 people killed in an Aurora movie theater while attending a midnight Batman screening last summer.

"Do any of us think he's insane? No, absolutely not. He was way too meticulous to be insane. He's mean. He's evil. But he's not insane."

Before doctors interview Holmes, they will review a mountain of evidence in the case. Prosecutors have up to 3,000 potential witnesses, 2,000 pieces of physical evidence and 40,000 pages of paperwork.

Susan Walsh/AP file

Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in the Aurora theater massacre, says she doesn't believe suspect James Holmes is insane.

The judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors can add one more item to their file: a notebook Holmes sent to a University of Colorado psychiatrist before the shooting that reportedly contains violent plans.

Jerri Jackson, the mother of victim Matt McQuinn, said she is curious to learn what's in the notebook, including any mention of motive, but noted it won't answer the question that torments her most.

"One thing I've always wondered is what Matt's last thoughts were," she said. "Did he think, 'I'm going to die'? That's something I'll never know."

Holmes — who wore a bushy beard and his brown hair combed back — was at Tuesday's hearing but did not speak beyond saying, "No," when the judge asked if he had any questions.

Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who has been closely following the case, said he will need to be more voluble with state examiners if he wants to mount an insanity defense.

If he refuses to cooperate with the court-ordered evaluation, his lawyers will be barred from calling their own mental-health experts to the stand during the trial or the penalty phase.

Holmes' team has asked that a defense lawyer and investigator be allowed to attend the sanity exams. In a reply motion, prosecutors said there's no precedent for it in Colorado and that having outsiders there "negatively impacts the accuracy" of the tests.

A stack of other motions were released Tuesday, including one in which the defense indicated it plans to ask for a change of venue, arguing Holmes cannot get a fair trial in Arapahoe County.

Steinhauser said the defense will have to do more than argue there's been too much pre-trial publicity to convince the judge to transfer the case.

"The issue with the change of venue is whether they're going to be able to find jurors who haven’t already made up their minds," she said.

If the defense can show — through a survey or some other means — that seating an impartial jury will be near impossible, the judge may consider moving the trial to a county where not as many potential jurors were directly affected by the shooting.

In other motions, the defense is trying to get expert testimony and Holmes' statements to investigators excluded from the trial. It also doesn't want the jury to see a evidence seized from Holmes' phone, wallet and a dating-site profile that asked, "Will you visit me in prison?"

One defense motion asked that authorities also turn over an email sent to the Century 16 theater four days after the massacre that said, "I am coming over to finish his job. The master demands it." The significance was unclear.

Holmes won't return to court until Aug. 2, a couple of weeks after the anniversary of the shooting.

"We are coming up on the one-year mark very quickly," Phillips said. "I just want people to remember the victims and not give so much attention to the killer."

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 4, 2013 10:28 AM EDT

Jim Cole / AP

Family and friends arrive for a memorial service for Nancy Lanza on Saturday in Kingston, N.H. Lanza's 20-year-old son, Adam Lanza, killed her at their home in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14 and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed the children and six school employees before committing suicide.

KINGSTON, N.H. -- More than a hundred family and friends gathered at a church in a small New Hampshire town Saturday to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year. 

The mourners and a few musicians filed into the white clapboarded First Congregational Church in Kingston for the memorial of Nancy Lanza, the first victim of her 20-year-old son Adam's rampage. She was shot dead in their home before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police closed in. 

More than a dozen uniformed police officers from several agencies blocked off the street and guarded the church door, ensuring only friends and family were allowed into the service. Nancy Lanza grew up in New Hampshire and lived there before moving to Newtown in 1998. 

Lanza's brother, James Champion, is a Kingston police officer and still lives in the town. 

A lone police bagpiper played as the processional arrived and lined up outside the church to enter together. Media outlets were kept 60 yards back across the street and behind yellow tape, and mourners declined to talk to reporters. 

A few people wiped their eyes as they left the church. 

Friends have said Nancy Lanza loved the Red Sox and gardening and talked of a growing enthusiasm for target shooting. The rifle and two handguns Adam Lanza took into Sandy Hook were registered to her. 

But they also said she never talked about her home life, keeping details about her son private. She occasionally said she was concerned about the future, but she didn't complain. 

Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

Nancy Lanza told a divorce mediator in 2009 that she didn't like to leave her son alone. People who met him described him as shy and introverted. The mediator recalled that Nancy and Peter, who had married in June 1981 in Kingston but divorced several years ago, were respectful of each other and concerned about Adam's needs. He'd switched schools several times and Nancy had tried home schooling. 

The head of security for the district where Adam Lanza attended high school said Nancy Lanza often had to come to school to deal with him when he had episodes of anxiety or withdrawing from others. 

The motive for her son's killing spree is still unclear. Investigators have said mother and son visited shooting ranges together, and the victims killed at the school were all shot with a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle that Adam Lanza took from the house he and his mother shared. That gun and the handgun he used to shoot himself had been legally purchased by his mother. 

The massacre has revived the national gun control debate and led to proposals for universal background checks on gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. 

The Newtown massacre was the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history after the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage, which left 33 people dead. 

Adam Lanza's father claimed his remains and a family spokesman said there were private arrangements, but the burial location was not made public. 

A private funeral attended by about 25 people was held for Nancy Lanza in Kingston on Dec. 20. 

Related stories:

New details emerge in private lives of Adam Lanza and his mother

Adam Lanza surrounded by weapons at home

Task force recommends building new school at site of Sandy Hook massacre

Barry Guiterrez / for NBC News

Amee Gharbi holds her son, Yousef Gharbi, who was shot during the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre last fall. Doctors told him the the bullet fragment that entered his brain will likely stay there for the rest of his life.

She glanced over at her 16-year-old son Yousef, who got a bullet to the brain during the July 20 bloodbath, and "his eyes were as wide as mine."

Gharbi knows she will likely hear more of the same -- and worse -- after a judge found probable cause for first-degree murder charges against suspect James Holmes late Thursday, putting the case on track for trial.

But she said she'll endure it in the hope that light will be shed on the big unanswered question looming over the tragedy: Why would someone shoot up a theater full of innocent Batman fans?

At the very least, she said, the public may get a look inside a notebook he mailed to a University of Colorado psychiatrist in which he reportedly detailed his plans. "Everybody wants to know what's in it," she said.

At any point, prosecutors and the defense could strike a deal, thereby avoiding a trial, but many of the Aurora families say they want Holmes judged by a jury, even if it compounds the anguish they felt at this week's hearing.

Some are hungry for more information about Holmes' thinking and planning. Some seek emotional closure. Others know it’s the only road to capital punishment.

"Through an entire first day of the hearing, not one person in that room had a dry eye -- except for that son of a b***," Sam Soudani said of Holmes. "As far as I'm concerned, if he wants to be a robot, he should be deactivated."

'I just want to look him in the eye'
Soudani's 23-year-old daughter, Farrah, survived the shooting but suffered major organ damage. They both attended the preliminary hearing, but Soudani said Farrah would probably skip any trial.

"I don't think my daughter could look at him," he said.

For Gharbi, face-time with Holmes is one reason she wants a trial instead of a plea deal.

"I just want to look him in the eye," she said of the doctoral-program dropout, who stared impassively into the distance during this week's court proceedings.

A trial isn't a necessity for Scott Larimer, who lost his 27-year-old son John and just wants to make sure that Holmes "never walks the streets again."

Yet if there is one, he hopes it will reveal whether anyone -- particularly the University of Colorado -- knew what Holmes was capable of and failed to act.

Larimer, who lives in Illinois, did not attend the preliminary hearing and said he wouldn't be able to handle the trial testimony.

"When they start talking about finding my son lying on the floor, I'm not sure I'm up to sitting in court. And if there are pictures," he said, trailing off.

Theresa Hoover, whose 18-year-old son, A.J. Boik, was among the 12 killed, went to the hearing, steeling herself for a raw reaction.

"I knew my child's name would come up, but to actually hear it was a little surreal," she said.

"During the 911 calls, A.J.'s fiancee [who survived] was with me, and it made her relive a little bit of what happened and that broke my heart. For me, I was like, 'OK, that's the moment when my son died.'"

Still, Hoover is not sorry she went. She said that since July she has been "in a daze," not quite willing or able to grasp that her artistic, spirited young son is really gone.

"Attending that hearing kind of helped me ... move past that," she said, adding that a trial would help her face the reality of her loss. "To hear all of this is almost healing."

Some want a trial because they want the case to end with a lethal injection, not a prison cell. Prosecutors have 63 days from arraignment to announce whether they will seek the death penalty.

Hoover said that while she doesn't think Holmes deserves to "walk this earth," she would rather see him locked up without parole, forced to "live with what he's done."

"Put him in general population, though," she said. "With the other mean guys."

Related stories:
James Holmes 'detached,' 'relaxed' after theater massacre, officer says
'Help me!': 911 call reveals teen's desperation after relatives shot in Aurora theater
FBI: James Holmes' booby-trap used remote-control car, frying pan

Courtesy of the Blunk family

Aurora shooting victim, Jonathan Blunk, and his children, 2-year-old Maximus and 4-year-old Hailey. Blunk's cousin, Jessica Watts, attended Monday's hearing.

As police officers fought back tears on the witness stand Monday, Sam Soudani was struck by how little James Holmes seemed to feel.

"It's like a robot," said Soundani, whose daughter, Farrah, 23, was critically wounded in the July 20 massacre at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater. "Absolutely no emotion."

Soudani was one of many victims' relatives and survivors who attended the first day of a weeklong hearing where prosecutors are laying out their case against Holmes to convince a judge there's enough evidence for a trial.

He told NBC News that he came to the courthouse to support his daughter, who is still recovering from the wounds she suffered in the bloodbath -- which claimed 12 lives and left dozens injured.

"I just wanted to hold her hand," he said.

But Farrah decided she didn’t want to see Holmes “face to face” and stayed in an overflow room while her father wept as Sgt. Gerald Jonsgaard testified about futilely searching for the pulse of 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan.

"Heartbreaking," Soudani said.

James Holmes 'very relaxed' after theater massacre, officer says

Holmes, 25, a former neuroscience doctoral student, displayed no discernible reaction during the moving testimony. And Soudani said the suspect didn't even deserve his hatred.

“I don't feel anything toward him,” he said. “It's hard to explain. I mean, part of me wanted to rip his head off and part of me just couldn't care less for him."

Jessica Watts, whose cousin Jonathan Blunk was killed in the shooting, also noted that Holmes seemed "disinterested" in the proceedings.

Family members of Jonathan Blunk, one of the victims of Friday's mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., attend a prayer vigil, Sunday, July 22, 2012, in Aurora, Colo.

Blunk, a military veteran and father of two, died shielding his date from the bullets. Watts said it was important for her to be at the hearing for "closure" and also to make sure the prosecution's case is strong.

She said it was "horrifying" to hear the witnesses describe the scene in the theater when they arrived.

"I can't imagine what these victims went through. Then again, I can't imagine what these first responders went through 'cause they're human beings, too," she said.

"Mainly the emotions struck me, the emotions of the officers testifying," she said. "It's very, very hard to hear."

Soudani said being in court was “agony” for him and he doesn’t think he can bear to return for any more testimony.

NBC News' Jack Chesnutt contributed to this report.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Rewards planned in possibly linked killings of elderly Calif. women
• Some wounded vets shine on 'Alive Day,' others wear black
• California man says he can drive in carpool lane with corporation papers
• Police: 4 dead, including gunman, in Aurora, Colo., hostage situation
• Tattoo photos lead to woman's arrest in global child porn investigation
• What Supreme Court? Gay marriage battles rage in the states
• Video: Warehouses full of criminal evidence lost to Sandy

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitterand Facebook

Newtown Bee via EPA file

A Connecticut State Police officer runs with a shotgun following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Police radio traffic from the Newtown school shooting shows emergency responders initially thought there might be two gunmen on the loose and were not aware of the extent of the carnage inside Sandy Hook Elementary School.

But the scope of the tragedy became more evident minute by minute, until authorities at the scene were heard asking for more help: “Call for everything” and “Do you know if anyone brought a mass casualty kit?”

“There’s a teacher and 18 kids there,” he said in a grim voice.

The communications were not officially released, but were posted on YouTube by a scanner monitor and authenticated by police.

Some of the dialogue is encrypted or garbled, but the transmissions that can be heard – with the sound of sirens blaring in the background — provide a glimpse of how Friday’s massacre unfolded through the eyes of police and paramedics.

The recordings begin at 9:35 a.m. with a dispatcher calmly reporting a 911 call about “somebody shooting in the building,” followed two minutes later by the chilling update that a caller was “continuing to hear what he believes to be gunfire.”

One dispatcher notifies responding officers that a teacher reported seeing “two shooters, running past the gym.”

“Make sure you have your vests on,” a voice cautions officers in the early minutes.

There was, of course, just one gunman, as authorities later learned – Adam Lanza, 20, who used a rifle to kill 20 children ages 6 and 7 and six school staffers before committing suicide.

Slideshow: Newtown school massacre

/

A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary, which left 20 children and six staff members dead.

Launch slideshow

The radio transmissions suggest police and paramedics had no idea of the scope of the tragedy as they raced toward Sandy Hook.

“I will need two ambulances,” one dispatcher says five minutes after the initial report.

Three minutes later came the first hint of casualties, a person in Room 1 with a “wound to a foot.”

Another three minutes and dispatchers got their first sign the toll could grow: “We’ve got an injured person in room Number 9 with numerous gunshot wounds.”

At 9:49 a.m., an officer described what may have been Lanza shooting himself with one of his handguns as cops swarmed the building.

“Shots were fired about three minutes ago,” the officer said. “Quiet at the time.”

Four minutes later came word that Lanza was dead.

“One suspect down. The building has now been cleared,” a voice said. Then, a cataloguing of Lanza’s arsenal: “Multiple weapons, including one rifle and handguns.”

It had been a half hour since the killer blasted his way into the hilltop school that housed 600 students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

There had been no mention on open channels of how many people had died. But at 10 a.m., there was a frantic call, in police lingo, for ambulances.

“We need buses here. ASAP,” said someone at the scene.

“Send the ambulance right up to me … Get the bus! Get the bus!”

Moments later, came this advisory: “You might want to see if the surrounding towns can send EMS personnel. We’re running out real quick.”

Another minute and it was becoming clear that Newtown was dealing with a tragedy of unprecedented proportions.

“Call for everything,” said the voice on the radio.

That gave way to radio chatter about logistics – the creation of a triage center and staging area where panicked parents could be reunited with children who survived.

There was talk of four children who had fled the campus after the shooting and were being brought back as police tried to account for every student.

Then came the horrifying revelation about victims in a closet, and a directive that suggested police were not expecting to find many survivors among the victims:

“Hold all other ambulances.”

Related stories:

Beloved teacher Victoria Soto being buried
'If you do good, you'll feel good': Origins of #26Acts of Kindness
Slideshow: Newtown school massacre
Family: Boy's favorite teacher died cradling him
For teachers, classroom security comes to the fore

Handout / Reuters

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales is seen during an exercise at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, in this Aug. 23, 2011, handout photo.

TACOMA, Washington - An Afghan villager and two of his sons, who survived a night-time shooting rampage in March, testified on Saturday that they saw only one U.S. soldier attacking their compound, backing the U.S. government's account.

A teenager said he had cried out "We are children, we are children" during the attack, but then saw the soldier shoot a child.

Military prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, accusing him of killing 16 villagers, mostly women and children, when he ventured out of his remote camp on two revenge-fueled forays over a five-hour period in March.

The shootings in Afghanistan's Kandahar province marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on an individual U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and damaged already strained U.S.-Afghan relations.

The U.S. government says a coherent and lucid Bales acted alone and with "chilling premeditation."

Some villagers told reporters shortly after the attacks that more than one U.S. soldier was involved, but sworn statements to that effect have not been made publicly.

Witness: Sgt. Bales, accused of Afghan massacre, was deemed a top soldier

Early Saturday, three survivors answered questions via video-link from Kandahar Air Field to a hearing at a U.S. Army base in Washington state - the first time Afghan witnesses have testified under oath about what transpired on March 11.

"He shot me right here," said Haji Mohamed Naim, the father of nine sons in the village of Alkozai, the scene of the first shootings.

Speaking through an interpreter, he said all he could see was a strong light on the head of a soldier who was not more than half a yard away from him when he started shooting.

Naim said he was awoken in the night by sounds of shots and dogs barking, and then children from the next door house knocked on his door. He then described how an "American" jumped from a wall before confronting him and starting to shoot.

Afghanistan shooting suspect Robert Bales faced financial troubles, records show

Two of Naim's sons, who were also in the compound, said they saw only one U.S. soldier on the night in question.

"Yes, I saw him, he came after me, I went to another room," said Naim's son Sadiquallah, who said he was 13 or 14 years old. He described how he hid behind a curtain in a storage room with one other child, and was hit in the ear with a bullet, but did not see who fired the shot.

"How many Americans did you see?" one of the prosecution attorneys asked Sadiquallah. "One," he replied.

'I saw the American'
His older brother Quadratullah, who said he was 14, was unscathed in the attack, but said he saw a U.S. soldier shooting other children.

"Yes I saw the American," he answered a government attorney. "I said 'We are children, we are children', and he shot one of the kids," Quadratullah said, through an interpreter.

"We saw only one American," he added.

At a courtroom at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Bales sat impassively throughout the proceedings, watching the witnesses on a TV screen in front of him.

The Afghan villagers testified on the fifth day of a hearing to establish whether there is enough evidence to put Bales before a court martial.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com 

A veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

Prosecutors have presented physical evidence to tie Bales to the crime scene, with a forensic investigator saying a sample of blood on Bales' clothes matched a swab taken in one of the compounds where the shooting occurred.

Bales' lawyers have not set out an alternative theory, but have pointed up inconsistencies in testimony and highlighted incidents before the shooting where Bales lost his temper easily or appeared unbalanced, possibly setting up an argument that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gathering evidence and witness statements was complicated by the speedy burial of victims, the inability of U.S. investigators to access the crime scenes for three weeks after the violence for fears of revenge attacks, and the dispersal of possible witnesses after treatment at a Kandahar hospital.

Bales' lead civil defense attorney John Henry Browne, who is in Kandahar to question the witnesses, complained early in the investigation that his team was denied access to villagers wounded in the attacks.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• CIA Director David Petraeus resigns, cites extramarital affair
• Petraeus' biographer under FBI investigation over access to his email, officials say
• FEMA-funded rapid reconstruction program to begin in NYC, mayor says
• During blackout, man uses Toyota Prius to light house
• Investigator matches blood on Sgt. Bales clothes to DNA from Afghan massacre scene
• Video: Security tape shows man crashing stolen jet
• Hispanics to Obama: We helped you, now you help us

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook