Vacaville Army Soldier Faces More Charges of Misconduct in Afghanistan

By Bay City News Service

A U.S. Army soldier from Vacaville, who already was facing charges of assault and misconduct against an American soldier in Afghanistan, was  charged Tuesday in connection with the alleged murders of Afghan nationals in  Kandahar Province last year.

Staff Sgt. David D. Bram, 27, is charged with solicitation to  commit premeditated murder, aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon on Afghan nationals on diverse occasions, failure to report crimes including murder, unlawfully engaging in murder scenario conversations with subordinates and planting evidence near the body of an Afghan national, according to Maj. Kathleen Turner in the public affairs office of Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash., where the charges were filed Tuesday.

The alleged offenses occurred in 2010, Turner said. A date for an  Article 32 hearing before an investigating officer, equivalent to a grand jury proceeding, has not been set, Turner said. Turner said she does not have the specifics of the allegations
against Bram that involve soliciting murders of Afghan nationals. Five other
soldiers are charged with the actual premeditated murders of the Afghan
nationals, she said.

Bram was charged in November with conspiring with six other soldiers of the 5th Stryker Brigade to commit assault and battery against an army private on May 5, 2010, at or near Forward Operating Base Ramrod in Afghanistan.

He also was charged with impeding an investigation into suspected hashish use by several soldiers by strangling the private, striking him with his hands and feet, and threatening to kill him that day if he spoke about hashish use within the platoon.

Bram also is charged with strangling and striking the private on May 5. Bram is charged with violating a lawful general order by wrongfully photographing and possessing visual images of human casualties between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, 2009 at the Ramrod operating base and failing to account for and dispose of an AK-47 rifle taken from Afghan Security Forces on or about Nov. 1, 2009 and May 11, 2010.

The fifth charge alleges Bram was cruel toward a person subject to his orders by strangling him and striking him with his hands and feet. If convicted of all the charges, Bram could be imprisoned for 21  years, Turner said.