Lawyers for a former Fort Benning soldier convicted in the murder of a fellow infantryman asked the Georgia Supreme Court today to grant him a new trial.
Mario Navarrete of San Juan, Texas was one of four former soldiers sentenced in the murder of Specialist Richard Davis, who was killed four years ago after a scuffle at a Columbus nightclub. The case attracted national attention and served as inspiration for the film "In The Valley of Elah," a murder mystery that opened last month.
Navarrete and Alberto Martinez were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the death of Davis, a soldier from St. Charles, Missouri who was killed a day after their unit returned from Iraq.
Navarrete's attorneys say their client tried to stop the killing by urging Martinez to put away the knife that dealt the fatal blows. The lawyers contend that Navarrete's attorney during the 2006 trial was ineffective because he was undergoing chemotherapy at the time, which could have resulted in a "lack of concentration and a loss of memory," said Dawson.
(Associated Press)
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