Maywand District murders

Maywand District murders
Part of War in Afghanistan
(L to R): Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock, and Adam Winfield – members of the Kill Team soldiers who are responsible for the murders.
Location	Kandahar Province, Afghanistan
Date	January – May 2010
Target	Afghan civilians
Attack type	War crime, staged murder, serial killings, human trophy collecting, terrorism
Weapons	M4 carbines, M249 light machine guns, grenades
Deaths	At least 3 Afghan civilians
Perpetrators	Jeremy Morlock Calvin Gibbs Andrew Holmes Adam C. Winfield
Motive	Thrill
Convictions	Gibbs and Morlock: Premeditated murder (3 counts) Holmes: Unpremeditated murder (3 counts) Winfield: Involuntary manslaughter
Sentence	Gibbs: Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 10 years Morlock: 24 years in prison Holmes: 7 years in prison (paroled after 4 years) Winfield: 3 years in prison (paroled after 1 year)

The Maywand District murders were the thrill killings of at least three Afghan civilians perpetrated by a group of U.S. Army soldiers from January to May 2010, during the War in Afghanistan. The soldiers, who referred to themselves as the "Kill Team",^[1][2] were members of the 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, and 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. They were based at FOB Ramrod in Maiwand, in Kandahar Province of Afghanistan.^[3][4]

During the summer of 2010, the military charged five members of the platoon with the murders of three Afghan civilians in Kandahar Province and collecting their body parts as trophies. In addition, seven soldiers were charged with crimes such as hashish use, impeding an investigation, and attacking the whistleblower Private first class Justin Stoner.^[5][6][7]

In March 2011, U.S. Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock pleaded guilty to three counts of premeditated murder. He told the court that he had helped to kill unarmed native Afghans in faked combat situations. Under a plea deal, Morlock received 24 years in prison for murdering three Afghan civilians in return for testimony against other soldiers. Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, the highest-ranking soldier and the ringleader, was also convicted on three counts of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison. Private First Class Andrew Holmes pleaded guilty to murder without premeditation and was sentenced to seven years in prison. Specialist Adam C. Winfield, who informed his father after the first murder and whose father attempted to alert the Army, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to three years in prison. In total, eleven of the twelve soldiers charged were convicted of crimes. All charges against the twelfth soldier, Specialist Michael Wagnon, were dropped by the U.S. military "in the interest of justice" without further explanation. PFC Justin Stoner, who initiated the case by reporting the murders to his superiors, was not charged.^[8][9][10]