Feral Jundi

   Interesting conclusion, and I wish the Ayala and Loyd families all the best as they try to heal and move on from this heart wrenching deal.  –Matt

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This undated photo made available Thursday, May 7, 2009 by the U.S. District Court shows military contractors Don Ayala, left, and Paula Loyd. On Friday, May 8, 2009, a judge must decide what is appropriate justice for Ayala, convicted of manslaughter while serving as a military contractor in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/US District Court) 

Ex-contractor given probation in slaying of Afghan

By MATTHEW BARAKAT 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former military contractor was sentenced Friday to probation for shooting and killing a handcuffed prisoner in Afghanistan.

Don Ayala of New Orleans pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges that normally would carry up to eight years in prison. But U.S. District Senior Judge Claude Hilton decided probation was warranted under the circumstances. The man whom Ayala shot had set fire to one of Ayala’s colleagues minutes before the shooting.

After the Nov. 4 attack on anthropologist Paula Loyd, Ayala helped subdue the man, Abdul Salam. When Ayala learned the extent of Loyd’s burns, he shot Salam at close range.

Ayala was sentenced to five years on probation and a $12,500 fine.

Ayala, 46, initially was charged with murder — the first military contractor charged with the crime while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prosecutors said he acted as an executioner and deserved a lengthy prison term. Supporters called him a hero whose actions were reasonable under the circumstances.

Minutes before the shooting, Salam had been chatting with Loyd about the price of fuel. Both Ayala and Loyd were members of what the Army calls a Human Terrain Team, in which social scientists like Loyd are embedded with the military to help them understand and navigate Afghan culture.

Salam tossed a pitcher of gasoline on Loyd and lit her on fire. Soldiers dragged Loyd, 36, to a sewage-filled drainage ditch to put out the flames.

When others told Ayala how badly Loyd was injured, Ayala pointed a 9mm pistol to Salam’s temple and pulled the trigger.

Salam died instantly. Loyd did not. With second- and third-degree burns covering 60 percent of her body, she lingered for two months before dying Jan. 7 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Chehel Gazi, about 80 miles west of Kandahar, an area known as a Taliban stronghold.

In sentencing papers, prosecutors argued that Ayala had the experience and the maturity to curb any desire for instant revenge.

“Given his background and experience, Ayala not only must have known better than to execute Salam, he should have been able to control himself,” wrote prosecutor Michael Rich.

Ayala, a former Army Ranger, held a wealth of experience.

Loyd had told her fiance and others that she felt safe with Ayala watching over her.

Loyd’s family has been among Ayala’s strongest supporters. Loyd’s mother, Patricia Ward, noted in a letter to the judge that several of Loyd’s friends offered to serve Ayala’s time for him.

“His reaction was perfectly normal in my mind,” wrote Ward, who said that she likely would have done the same thing.

Ayala’s lawyers said his experience, rather than steeling him to keep his emotions in check, left him with latent combat stress that reared up as he dealt with the emotions and adrenaline of the attack on Loyd and the struggle to subdue Salam. At one point in the struggle Salam had grabbed the barrel of a soldier’s rifle.

“Without knowing it, Mr. Ayala was vulnerable to errors in judgment under combat conditions” because of the accumulated combat-related stress, wrote federal public defender Michael Nachmanoff.

In a court filing Wednesday, prosecutors scoffed at the “reduced mental capacity” defense.

“His execution of Salam on November 4, 2008, was perfectly understandable without psychological parsing,” Rich wrote. “Salam torched his colleague, and for that Ayala executed him. … For what (Salam) did to Ms. Loyd, Salam probably deserved to die, but not when and as he did. That was not Ayala’s decision to make.”

Prosecutors also released a new detail to counter the notion that Ayala reacted in the heat of the moment. A witness to the shooting reported that before shooting Salam, Ayala gave an interpreter an instruction directed at Salam: “Tell him I think he’s the devil.”

Ayala offered this explanation in court papers: “I was over come by the horror of what he had done to her, knowing that she was suffering and that she would never be the same, even if she lived.

“Immediately after the incident, I was allowed to go see Paula. I will never forget hearing Paula cry ‘I’m cold’ over and over as the medic tried to treat her wounds.”

Federal sentencing guidelines called for a term of up to eight years. Prosecutors acknowledged that a departure from guidelines may be warranted but still sought a “significant” prison term. Defense lawyers asked for probation.

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