Blackwater security guards released on their own recognizance

Five guards working for the private security contractor Blackwater Worldwide were released on their own recognizance by a federal judge today and will next appear in court in Washington, D.C.

The rulings came this afternoon when the five men — one of them from Utah — surrendered at the U.S. District courthouse in Salt Lake City ahead of a 35-count indictment accusing them of killing 14 unarmed Iraqis and wounding 20 others in September 2007. A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted the men on charges of voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter, using a gun in a crime of violence and aiding and abetting.

A judge declined to hold a hearing on a defense motion urging the establishment of probable cause, noting that a grand jury in Washington, D.C., had already indicted the men. The judge also refused to hear a defense motion challenging the federal court's jurisdiction in the matter because the alleged crimes happened in Iraq.

Four of the men were ordered to surrender their weapons. The exception was Donald Wayne Ball of West Valley City. He works as a bailiff in Salt Lake City's Justice Court.

Ball's attorney, Steven McCool, said in court this afternoon, "these charges, we will fight them at every turn."

Earlier in the day, as they walked into the federal courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City to surrender, a heckler across the street shouted: "Baby killers!"

"He is beyond innocent," defense attorney Thomas Connolly said of his client, Nick Slatten, as he walked into the courthouse. The men all said nothing as they walked inside.

Indicted are:

• Ball, 26, a former Marine from West Valley City.

• Nicholas Abram Slatten, 24, a former Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.

• Paul Alvin Slough, 29, of Keller, Texas, who served in the Army.

• Dustin Laurent Heard, 27, a former Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.

• Evan Shawn Liberty, 26, a former Marine from Rochester, N.H.

Another man, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, 35, of California, pleaded guilty in Washington D.C., on Dec. 5 to charges of voluntary manslaughter, attempt to commit manslaughter and aiding and abetting. He has not been sentenced yet.