Murder (not guilty)
On May 3, SEAL Team 7 was clearing villages near Mosul when they learned that Iraqi forces, which they were helping to fight ISIS, had encountered a young, IS fighter.
He was injured and in need of medical care after suffering a collapsed lung in a strike. The boy had been brought into the SEAL compound by a Humvee of Iraqi fighters, the SEALs testified.
Gallagher was not at the compound but was out on the field. When he call came over the radio that the boy needed care, Gallagher volunteered.
According to witness testimony, he told the Iraqi soldiers not to waste their own medics on caring for the enemy and that he instead would tend to him.
‘Lay off him, he’s mine,’ he is accused of saying. When they got back to the base, some of the SEALs said they saw Gallagher give him medical aid.
They then claimed, however, that he took his hunting knife and spontaneously stabbed him twice in the neck and once in the side.
One testified that it caused him to bleed so profusely there was blood spurting from his neck.
‘It looked similar to a baby throwing up,’ said Special Operations Chief Craig Miller.
Others say that the last time they saw the militant, he was alive and in Gallagher’s care but he was dead when they returned.
The testimony which varies greatest is Corey Scott’s who said he was the one who killed the boy because he wanted to spare him the torture he faced from Iraqi soldiers.
Attempted murder (not guilty)
There are two charges of assault on ‘noncombatants’ listed in the charge sheet.
One is against an elderly man who the SEALs say they saw Gallagher shoot from his sniper’s nest for no reason.
The other is a young, schoolage girl who they say he shot. The SEALs said he claimed to have killed them but it is not clear from the charging sheet if they actually died.
According to testimony, he allegedly told them over the radio: ‘You guys missed them but I got them.’
On another occasion, the SEALs say he shot a different girl, aged between 12 and 14, in the stomach. She was wearing a floral hijab, they said.
The defense argued that none of the witnesses actually saw him pull the trigger and that was entirely possible the civilians had been shot by ISIS and not Gallagher.
Posing with a corpse, reenlistment ceremony next to a corpse and flying a drone over it (guilty of posing with corpse)
Photographs that were shown to the jury showed Gallagher and the other SEALs posing with the corpse of the dead Iraqi fighter once he was dead.
He sent the image to friends and boasted about it, according to the SEALs.
Not long after he died, Portier reenlisted Gallagher into the Navy next to the boy’s corpse which had been covered by a blanket.
There was also a charge for flying a drone over it in a disrespectful way once he was dead.
The other SEALs participated in all of these three charges which come under the term ‘Novel’.
The crime is that Gallagher discredited the Navy in his actions.
All of the others, with the exception of Portier, were given immunity in exchange for testifying against him.
Obstructing justice x 3 (not guilty)
Prosecutors allege that Gallagher obstructed justice by trying to stop other SEALs from testifying against him once the investigation was underway and before it began.
They say that he threatened them and told them he would kill them if they ever told superiors how he had behaved during the deployment.
Unlawfully firing his gun (not guilty)
Gallagher allegedly fired his rifle indiscriminately, at least ’10 times’ than some of the other SEALs said they did, while deployed.
Unlawful possession of a controlled substance (dropped before trial)
He is accused of having Sustaon 250, a testosterone injection. Prosecutors claimed he was using the steroid improperly.
He argued that it was part of a medical kit he had been given to give to others that was discovered during a search of his house.
Wrongful use of a controlled substance (dropped before trial)
Gallagher also had tramadol, a highly addictive painkiller, which they say he was abusing.
He argued that he had long held a prescription for it.