Soldier found not guilty in Itaewon stabbing

[unhappycamper]

Soldier found not guilty in Itaewon stabbing
By Erik Slavin, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, February 15, 2008

CAMP CASEY, South Korea — In a bar with about 30 people, no one actually saw Spc. Eric T. Eccels get stabbed — except Eccels himself.

No one ever found the knife that would have explained his lacerated cheek, the 3½-inch-deep wound in his back or the scrape on his stomach.

Eccels accused Spc. Brian A. Rajanoor of attacking him that night.

Rajanoor told the court he pushed Eccels, but never stabbed him before leaving Polly’s Kettle Bar in Seoul on Jan. 6, 2007 — without his Korean girlfriend but with her jacket.

Rajanoor’s unusual exit and claims from Eccels’ friends who were at the bar that night weren’t enough for a nine-member jury to convict Rajanoor of aggravated assault with intent to murder, or any lesser charges, in a Camp Casey courtroom Wednesday. The specialist was acquitted.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52487