thedrifter
12-26-06, 01:46 PM
December 26, 2006
‘He lost his mind’
Coming home a killer?
Former Marine facing murder chargehad PTSD counseling, friends say ;;
Salt Lake Tribune
By Nate Carlisle and Matthew D. LaPlante
A former Marine accused of murdering the mother of his two sons was haunted by recollections of bloody battles in Iraq in which he felt responsible for the deaths of a number of women and children, according to a friend.
Marine Corps officials, including the sergeant who led Walter Smith into battle in 2003, confirmed that the young Marine was involved in some of the most intense fighting of the war. And that fighting, said 1st Sgt. Nick Lopez, led to deaths of civilians who were caught in the crossfire or used as human shields by Saddam Hussein’s soldiers.
Smith, 24, is charged in the March 26 drowning of Nicole Speirs, the 22-year-old mother of his twin sons, in the bathtub of the family home in Tooele, Utah.
Smith was among the Marines who opened fire on a car approaching a checkpoint on April 8, 2003, in Iraq, Lopez said. The man inside, who was not a combatant, was killed.
Smith also may have been forced to fire into civilian vehicles that had been commandeered by Iraqi soldiers in the first brutal days of fighting in and around Baghdad, Lopez said.
In many instances, Lopez said, that fighting resulted in the deaths of civilians, including women and children.
In an e-mail to The Salt Lake Tribune, a man identifying himself as Dennis Petersen of Orem, Utah, said he had befriended Smith and described some of the events, later confirmed by Lopez, that troubled Smith. Petersen said Smith was especially distraught over deaths of non-combatants, including one instance in which the Marine felt responsible for the deaths of women and children.
“When Walter realized his role in this tragedy, he lost his mind,” wrote Petersen, who declined a phone interview.
Lopez said he recognized that Smith was having a difficult time dealing with his experiences in Iraq. Shortly after returning from the war, Smith was discharged from the service “for medical reasons,” Lopez said.
Several people who knew Smith said he promptly entered counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder, as had many members of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines.
Lopez said many of his Marines returned home highly distressed by their experiences — especially the deaths of civilians and the loss of comrades.
Documentary filmmaker Coby Broyles has followed the postwar lives of several Fox Company Marines, reservists mostly from Utah and Nevada, and has interviewed about 25 men from the unit, nearly all of whom have PTSD symptoms such as nightmares and flashbacks.
“Readjustment for them is hard,” she said. “I don’t think enough people in our society are aware of that. I think it makes their readjustment harder.”
Some of the men have conceded losing their temper, Broyles said, but she said she is not aware of any of them committing violence since returning home.
What role Smith’s military experiences might have played in Speirs’ death is unclear. Smith’s attorney, Matthew Jube, said Dec. 12 that he would seek his client’s medical records from the military and private practitioners who treated the Marine.
Forensic psychologist Martin Williams said he was doubtful that PTSD could account for or explain Smith’s alleged violent behavior.
“One aspect of PTSD is … irritability and outbursts of anger,” said Williams, a University of California at Berkeley psychologist who is often called to testify on traumatic-stress issues.
“And then there is the thing everybody seems familiar with — flashbacks, that classic situation where a veteran hears a car backfiring or some loud noise in the middle of the night and suddenly he’s out of bed, on the floor, looking for his gun.”
Williams noted, however, that PTSD sufferers remain conscious of and responsible for their actions.
Jeff Victoroff, associate professor of clinical neurology and psychiatry at the University of Southern California, agreed with Williams’ analysis, but he also noted that exposure to the violence of war can materialize in ways aggravated by the symptoms of PTSD.
“One element of PTSD is emotional numbing,” he said. “If a person has been exposed to a great deal of violence and has lost the inhibition against violence and at the same time has experienced the emotional numbing of PTSD ... it is conceivable they might respond to an otherwise minor irritation or perceived threat with an explosion of rage and aggression.”
Tooele Police Department Sgt. Todd Hewitt said Smith’s military and medical history did not enter into his agency’s investigation into Speirs’ death.
A medical examiner was unable to classify Speirs’ death as an accident or homicide, but police say Smith recently admitted to the murder after checking into the Veterans Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City. There, according to an affidavit filed in support of murder charges, the 24-year-old told detectives: “I am responsible for Nicole’s death.”
Tooele County prosecutors filed first-degree felony murder charges against Smith on Dec. 7.
Lopez said Smith was a good, well-disciplined Marine who had “the utmost of respect for authority” and did not seem at all troubled “until we got home.”
Lopez said that although none of Smith’s troubles would justify what he is alleged to have done, the questions raised by the incident have him worried.
“I’m now asking myself, ‘Are we doing enough for these guys?’”
Ellie
‘He lost his mind’
Coming home a killer?
Former Marine facing murder chargehad PTSD counseling, friends say ;;
Salt Lake Tribune
By Nate Carlisle and Matthew D. LaPlante
A former Marine accused of murdering the mother of his two sons was haunted by recollections of bloody battles in Iraq in which he felt responsible for the deaths of a number of women and children, according to a friend.
Marine Corps officials, including the sergeant who led Walter Smith into battle in 2003, confirmed that the young Marine was involved in some of the most intense fighting of the war. And that fighting, said 1st Sgt. Nick Lopez, led to deaths of civilians who were caught in the crossfire or used as human shields by Saddam Hussein’s soldiers.
Smith, 24, is charged in the March 26 drowning of Nicole Speirs, the 22-year-old mother of his twin sons, in the bathtub of the family home in Tooele, Utah.
Smith was among the Marines who opened fire on a car approaching a checkpoint on April 8, 2003, in Iraq, Lopez said. The man inside, who was not a combatant, was killed.
Smith also may have been forced to fire into civilian vehicles that had been commandeered by Iraqi soldiers in the first brutal days of fighting in and around Baghdad, Lopez said.
In many instances, Lopez said, that fighting resulted in the deaths of civilians, including women and children.
In an e-mail to The Salt Lake Tribune, a man identifying himself as Dennis Petersen of Orem, Utah, said he had befriended Smith and described some of the events, later confirmed by Lopez, that troubled Smith. Petersen said Smith was especially distraught over deaths of non-combatants, including one instance in which the Marine felt responsible for the deaths of women and children.
“When Walter realized his role in this tragedy, he lost his mind,” wrote Petersen, who declined a phone interview.
Lopez said he recognized that Smith was having a difficult time dealing with his experiences in Iraq. Shortly after returning from the war, Smith was discharged from the service “for medical reasons,” Lopez said.
Several people who knew Smith said he promptly entered counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder, as had many members of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines.
Lopez said many of his Marines returned home highly distressed by their experiences — especially the deaths of civilians and the loss of comrades.
Documentary filmmaker Coby Broyles has followed the postwar lives of several Fox Company Marines, reservists mostly from Utah and Nevada, and has interviewed about 25 men from the unit, nearly all of whom have PTSD symptoms such as nightmares and flashbacks.
“Readjustment for them is hard,” she said. “I don’t think enough people in our society are aware of that. I think it makes their readjustment harder.”
Some of the men have conceded losing their temper, Broyles said, but she said she is not aware of any of them committing violence since returning home.
What role Smith’s military experiences might have played in Speirs’ death is unclear. Smith’s attorney, Matthew Jube, said Dec. 12 that he would seek his client’s medical records from the military and private practitioners who treated the Marine.
Forensic psychologist Martin Williams said he was doubtful that PTSD could account for or explain Smith’s alleged violent behavior.
“One aspect of PTSD is … irritability and outbursts of anger,” said Williams, a University of California at Berkeley psychologist who is often called to testify on traumatic-stress issues.
“And then there is the thing everybody seems familiar with — flashbacks, that classic situation where a veteran hears a car backfiring or some loud noise in the middle of the night and suddenly he’s out of bed, on the floor, looking for his gun.”
Williams noted, however, that PTSD sufferers remain conscious of and responsible for their actions.
Jeff Victoroff, associate professor of clinical neurology and psychiatry at the University of Southern California, agreed with Williams’ analysis, but he also noted that exposure to the violence of war can materialize in ways aggravated by the symptoms of PTSD.
“One element of PTSD is emotional numbing,” he said. “If a person has been exposed to a great deal of violence and has lost the inhibition against violence and at the same time has experienced the emotional numbing of PTSD ... it is conceivable they might respond to an otherwise minor irritation or perceived threat with an explosion of rage and aggression.”
Tooele Police Department Sgt. Todd Hewitt said Smith’s military and medical history did not enter into his agency’s investigation into Speirs’ death.
A medical examiner was unable to classify Speirs’ death as an accident or homicide, but police say Smith recently admitted to the murder after checking into the Veterans Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City. There, according to an affidavit filed in support of murder charges, the 24-year-old told detectives: “I am responsible for Nicole’s death.”
Tooele County prosecutors filed first-degree felony murder charges against Smith on Dec. 7.
Lopez said Smith was a good, well-disciplined Marine who had “the utmost of respect for authority” and did not seem at all troubled “until we got home.”
Lopez said that although none of Smith’s troubles would justify what he is alleged to have done, the questions raised by the incident have him worried.
“I’m now asking myself, ‘Are we doing enough for these guys?’”
Ellie