SEATTLE – A soldier awarded a Purple Heart for combat injuries in Iraq now stands accused of brutally attacking his young wife with knives and a meat cleaver.
Spc. Brandon Bare of Wilkesboro, N.C., faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder and indecent acts related to the mutilation of 18-year-old Nabila Bare’s body on July 12.
Military prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to make their opening statements during the start of Bare’s general court-martial Monday morning at the Army’s Fort Lewis, near Tacoma. The trial is expected to last five days.
Attorneys have declined to comment on the case, and details surrounding the woman’s death have been limited.
Bare, 20, has been held in the post’s Regional Corrections Facility since his arrest in July.
A machine-gunner with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, Bare was sent to Iraq in the fall of 2004. He’d been there less than a year when he was sent home to recuperate from injuries suffered in a March 24, 2005, grenade attack on his Stryker brigade unit in Mosul.
The July 12 killing occurred about three months after Bare returned to Fort Lewis and was awarded a Purple Heart for his injuries, including to the head.
His slain wife was found in the couple’s kitchen, stabbed at least 71 times with knives and a meat cleaver. About three dozen of the injuries were to her head and neck.
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