JOINT BASE LEWIS MCCHORD — The Army has won its 11th conviction in an investigation of war crimes involving Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers.
Staff Sgt. David Bram, 27, was found guilty Friday and sentenced to five years in prison for covering up wrongdoing in Afghanistan when he could have stopped it., The News Tribune reported in Saturday’s newspaper.
Bram was found guilty of assaulting a private who blew the whistle on drug use in their platoon, soliciting another soldier to join him in a scheme to murder Afghan civilians, impeding an Army investigation and disobeying a general order by possessing photos of casualties.
A five-soldier jury found Bram not guilty of abusing Afghan detainees and planting an AK-47 magazine near a corpse after a shooting in January 2010.
After his verdict was read, Bram cried while making a statement to the jury, asking for mercy so he could reunite with his two children.
“After seeing my children ripped away from me for the sins of their father, I truly do understand the weight of what I’ve done,” he said.
Bram’s conviction leaves one soldier from the platoon to face a jury. Spc. Michael Wagnon, one of five defendants charged with murder, is expected to have his court-martial in January.
Bram has attended trials for many of his 11 platoon mates who came home accused of misconduct during their deployment with the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Five soldiers from his company sat in court while the verdict for the well-liked and well-respected soldier was read, as did his wife.
“I would take Bram over 100 regular soldiers,” said Sgt. 1st Class Darrell Rowe.
But Bram didn’t live up to his responsibility as a noncommissioned officer leading an infantry squad during its deployment to southern Afghanistan last year, prosecutors argued.
“He just started down a slippery slope of Sgt. Bram doing whatever Sgt. Bram felt like,” prosecutor Capt. Jeremy Scholtes said.
Bram said he was frustrated by an enemy that “wouldn’t fight us, they’d just ambush us with” improvised explosives.
He started looking the other way when soldiers picked up “off the books” weapons during their missions. He took a photograph with an Afghan who was killed by an Apache helicopter, despite an Army ban against positing in images with dead bodies.
Bram also concocted a plan to use an illicit AK-47 in a scheme to kill suspected Taliban motorcycle riders who would race up to Stryker infantry vehicles and slip away before soldiers could catch them. Bram had no way of knowing if these motorcycle riders were enemies, so his plan was considered a plot to murder innocents.
Four of his platoon mates have been convicted of murdering Afghans in scenarios such as the one he outlined to then-Spc. Emmitt Quintal to take out the motorcycle riders.
Before they could carry out the plan, Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs carried out his own murder scheme with the gun while Bram was on leave.
Gibbs was given a life sentence earlier this month for three murders and other crimes.
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