Honored soldier is booted for drugs, other violations

[unhappycamper]

Honored soldier is booted for drugs, other violations
By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, March 12, 2009

VICENZA, Italy — A soldier who was praised for his gallantry in Afghanistan was sentenced Wednesday to almost a year in prison and a bad-conduct discharge for his illegal behavior, most of which occurred while he wasn’t deployed.

During a general court-martial Wednesday, Spc. Jason D. Layton pleaded guilty to using cocaine and marijuana, disobeying a curfew and being an accessory after the fact.

Col. Jeffrey Nance, the military judge, sentenced Layton to 15 months in prison and gave him a bad-conduct discharge. The sentence was reduced to 12 months because of a pre-trial agreement.

Layton, a member of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, will spend 20 fewer days in confinement because of pre-trial punishments.

The pre-trial agreement also included the prosecution dropping an additional four charges against Layton relating to an incident in Afghanistan — conspiracy, larceny, assault and housebreaking. Testimony revealed that three other soldiers committed those crimes.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=61282