• Hearing begins for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales over alleged massacre of Afghan civilians

    U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, charged with killing 16 Afghan villagers as they slept, appears in a Washington state military courtroom Monday. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

    By NBC News wire services

    Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET: In pretrial hearings for U.S. Army Sgt. Robert Bales, accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers in a nighttime massacre in March, prosecutors described to a military court on Monday how the sergeant allegedly returned to his base in Kandahar province with the blood of his victims on his rifle, belt, shirt and shoes and then seemed stunned to be confronted by fellow soldiers.

    Bales sat quietly in the courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state as military prosecutors summarized the events of March 11 when they allege the 39-year-old sergeant walked off his base in Kandahar province under cover of darkness and opened fire on civilians — mostly women and children — in their homes in at least two villages.


    Prosecutor Lt. Col Jay Morse said Bales had been drinking and briefly visited the room of a fellow soldier before he left the Army post, called Camp Belambay, and went to a village where he committed the first set of slayings.

    Morse said Bales then returned to the camp, told some others what he had done and left again, moving on to a different village and committing additional killings. He called Bales' actions "deliberate, methodical."

    The prosecution also showed a video shot by night-vision camera from a surveillance balloon over the camp, showing a figure they identified as Bales walking back to the post wearing what they described as a cape.

    The man is seen being confronted by three soldiers, who order him to drop his weapons and take him into custody as he is heard saying, "Are you @!$%#ing kidding me?"

    Karilyn Bales, the wife of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, spoke exclusively with NBC's Matt Lauer, telling the TODAY anchor that the news about her husband is 'very unbelievable.'

    Cpl. David Godwin, who was among the first to encounter Bales after the alleged shootings, also testified on Monday, describing the meeting as "kind of surreal," the Seattle Times reported.

    Godwin, who served under Bales, was one of the people who had been drinking with him on March 10, the night before the killings. He told the court that while they drank, they watched the 2004 movie "Man on Fire," which stars Denzel Washington and is about a CIA operative turned bodyguard who goes on a killing rampage after his child is kidnapped.

    After that, Godwin said, he believed Bales went to bed, the Times reported, but learned otherwise when another soldier awakened him at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., and the two of them went to the post's outer gate looking for Bales. They finally spotted him returning to base sometime before 5 a.m., Godwin told the court.

    "I kind of thought that Bob (Bales) thought... he was doing this to better us," said Godwin, according to the Times. He quoted Bales as saying: "I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was doing the right thing."

    The shooting, which if proven at trial would be the worst civilian slaughter by U.S. forces since the Vietnam War, eroded already-strained U.S.-Afghan ties after over a decade of conflict in the country.

    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. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

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    The hearing is expected to last two weeks and include witness testimony carried by live video from Afghanistan, including villagers and Afghan soldiers. Part of the hearing will be held at night due to the time difference.

    At the end, military commanders will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to refer the case for trial by court-martial.

    'Sanity board'
    Morse said he would present evidence proving "chilling premeditation" on the part of Bales.

    John Henry Browne, Bales' civilian lawyer, has suggested that Bales may not have acted alone and may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Bales is a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    How Staff Sgt. Bales' lawyers are fighting for his life

    Bales also has two military defense counselors, Maj. Gregory Malson and Capt. Matthew Aeisi. Malson represented Army Sgt. William Kreutzer, who was sentenced to life in prison three years ago for killing an officer and wounding 18 U.S. soldiers in a 1995 shooting spree during a training session at Fort Bragg, N.C.

    Separately, Bales is also subject to a review of his mental fitness to stand trial, often referred to as a "sanity board." The Army has not disclosed the status of that review.

    The father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., appeared with his head shaved, dressed in Army fatigues. He embraced his wife in court before the hearing started.

    The investigating officer read the charges against Bales and informed him of his rights. Bales said, "Sir, yes, sir," when asked if he understood them. He was not expected to answer questions in the hearings.

    Bales was confined at a military prison in Kansas from March until he was moved in October to Lewis-McChord, where his infantry regiment was based. 

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Aref Karimi / AFP - Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

    The March shooting highlighted discipline problems among U.S. soldiers from Lewis-McChord, which was also the home base of five enlisted men from the former 5th Stryker Brigade charged with premeditated murder in connection with three killings of unarmed Afghan civilians in 2010.

    Four of the men were convicted or pleaded guilty in court-martial proceedings to murder or manslaughter charges and were sentenced to prison. Charges against the fifth were dropped.

    In August, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta directed a panel of experts to assess whether reforms were needed in the way the military justice system handles crimes committed by U.S. forces against civilians in combat zones.

    Reuters and The Associated Press and NBC News' Kari Huus contributed to this report.

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  • Police: Two TSA agents held after drunken rampage in Miami hotel

    View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com.

    By NBCMiami.com

    A pair of South Florida TSA agents face criminal charges after police say they went on a drunken rampage inside a Miami Beach hotel room, throwing furniture out a window and wildly firing a gun, NBCMiami.com reported.


    Jeffrey Piccolella, 27, and Nicholas Puccio, 25, are both charged with criminal mischief and using a firearm under the influence of alcohol or drugs in the Tuesday night incident at the Shelby Hotel, according to a Miami Beach police report obtained by NBCMiami.com.

    Officers called to the hotel around 11 p.m. after reports of a gun being discharged from a second-floor room took the two agents into custody without incident, the report said. Each had a strong breath odor of alcohol and bloodshot and watery eyes, the report said.

    See the original story, video at NBCMiami.com

    On the ground outside the hotel room, officers found a radio, speakers, two lamps, a phone, an ice chest, a shattered vase and a bullet casing, the report said.

    Piccolella admitted that the pair had returned to the room after having several drinks and started throwing the items out the window, the report said.

    Piccolella said he had fired the gun out the window once, handed it to Puccio, who also fired once, and then got the gun back and fired three more times, according to the report.

    One bullet struck a $1,500 hurricane-proof window at the Barneys New York at 832 Collins Ave., the report said. The hotel items were worth $400, it said.

    Puccio denied any involvement in the incident, the report said.

    The Transportation Safety Administration said both are part-time employees at Palm Beach International Airport and were not traveling on official business.

    "TSA holds its employees to the highest professional and ethical standards. We will review the facts and take appropriate action as necessary," the TSA said in a statement obtained by NBCMiami.com.

    Both Piccolella, of West Palm Beach, and Puccio, of Delray Beach, were being held on $5,500 bond, NBC Miami said.

    Elvuyra Perez Gallego, visiting Miami from Spain for the first time, told NBCMiami.com she was scared when she came back to the hotel from a late night out and saw police blocking the street surrounding her hotel.

    She said she has sat on the hotel patio many times this week to use her computer and socialize, and she doesn't like thinking about what could happen with a stray bullet.

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  • Stabbing spree suspect admits killing 4

    NBC New York

    Maksim Gelman was arrested in February after the spree that included stabbing his stepfather and acquaintances to death, running over a pedestrian, carjacking and other violence.

    By Colleen Long, NBCNewYork.com

    A man accused of killing four people and wounding four others in a 28-hour rampage across Brooklyn and Manhattan earlier this year suddenly pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder and other charges.

    Maksim Gelman was arrested in February after the spree that included stabbing his stepfather and acquaintances to death, running over a pedestrian, carjacking and other violence. Gelman had previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charges brought by Brooklyn prosecutors. At the time, he was under medical supervision, and his attorney, Edward Friedman, described his mental state as "fragile."

    But, given the evidence in the case and a doctor's opinion that Gelman couldn't argue he was not guilty by reason of insanity, Gelman decided he wanted to get out of his holding cell — and start serving his time in a permanent facility, his lawyer said.

    Read the original story on NBCNewYork.com

    The 24-year-old Ukraine-born man answered "yes" when asked if he understood what it meant to change his plea. Wearing a baggy orange jumpsuit, his hands cuffed behind his back and his hair closely cropped, Gelman answered the judge at a clip, saying "yes," ''yep" and "It sure is," as the 13-count indictment was read aloud.

    The courtroom was empty except for reporters and the boyfriend of one of the victims who cried silently in the second row. Earlier court hearings had been packed.

    Gelman faces life in prison, but a sentencing date hasn't yet been set. Friedman has asked for another psychiatric evaluation to show Gelman needs treatment. The Brooklyn district attorney's office said it would seek life in prison. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 11.

    "It's quite likely, almost guaranteed, that any sentence I give means you'd never be released from a penal institution while you are alive," Judge Vincent DelGiudice said.

    Gelman said he understood. "Have a good one," he said to his lawyer after he was led away.

    Gelman's deadly spree started with a family argument over whether he could use his mother's car, authorities said.

    After stabbing to death his stepfather in the family's Brooklyn apartment, Gelman went to the home of a female acquaintance, Yelena Bulchenko, prosecutors said. Bulchenko's friends have said he was obsessed with the 20-year-old woman and imagined a romantic relationship with her.

    Gelman killed Bulchenko's 56-year-old mother, then waited hours for the daughter to return and stabbed her 11 times, authorities said. He then left the Bulchenkos' home, rear-ended a car and stabbed its driver, they said. The driver survived.

    Stealing the wounded man's car, Gelman drove off and plowed into a pedestrian who died from his injuries, police said. After abandoning the car, Gelman later hailed a livery cab and attacked its driver, then approached another car, attacked a man inside and seized the car, police said. Both men survived.

    All those attacks happened in Brooklyn. Gelman was next spotted on a subway in Manhattan, where passengers recognized him from newspaper photographs and notified police, authorities said. He dashed across the tracks, switched trains and attacked a final passenger before he was grabbed by police who were in the subway car looking for him on the tracks. The Manhattan case is still pending.

    Police later recovered a bloody knife, three straight razor blades, a paring knife and $932.

    According to court documents filed by prosecutors, Gelman told a police officer, "I'll beat this. I'll go to a mental hospital for a few years, and I'll get out on the street again, you'll see."

    When asked by police why the four victims had to die, Gelman said, "Because I said so," according to the documents.

    Outside court, Bulchenko's boyfriend, Gerard Honig, said he was just happy that Gelman was guilty.

    "I just want him to get as much time as he can, that's it," he said.

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