By NBC News staff(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121219-robert-bales-kb-1015a.380;380;7;70;0.jpg)Spc. Ryan Hallock / DVIDS via EPA fileU.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, seen here at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif., Aug. 23, 2011, is accused of murdering 16 Afghan villagers.The case of a decorated U.S. Army sergeant accused of murdering 16 civilians in two Afghanistan villages will proceed to a court-martial and he could face the death penalty if convicted, the Army said Wednesday.
Follow @NBCNewsUS (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsUS) The military’s General Court-Martial Convening Authority this week referred charges against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales to a general court-martial. The decision came after a review of evidence from a pretrial hearing last month.
No date has been set for the court-martial, which will be held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Tacoma, Wash.
Bales, 39, faces charges of premeditated murder and other crimes in the predawn shooting and stabbing attack on two villages in southern Afghanistan early on March 11. Prosecutors say he left his remote base, attacked one village, returned to the base, and then slipped away again to attack another nearby compound.
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