Wrongly accused of murder in Iraq, a former Marine looks for redemption on the campaign trail

Candidate for North Carolina's 7th Congressional District Ilario Pantano (Facebook)

Candidate for North Carolina's 7th Congressional District Ilario Pantano (Facebook)

Candidate for North Carolina's 7th Congressional District Ilario Pantano (Facebook)

Pantano requested, and was granted, an age waiver, and a waiver for a dependent, to re-enlist. A sergeant when he first left the Marines after the Gulf War, he was now commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to lead an infantry platoon. He expected a lot from the Marines under his command but quickly earned their respect as a thoughtful, capable and passionate officer.

“If there was the most minute opportunity for danger, he would take every measure possible to eliminate that threat,” one officer who served with Pantano told New York magazine. “He goes to the furthest extent to do the job right, and that’s something that I couldn’t say for anybody else.”

To motivate the 40 young Marines under his command, Pantano showed them an HBO documentary about the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “My duty, as is the duty of these other Marines,” he told the BBC, “is, quite frankly, to export violence to the four corners of the globe to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.” He arrived with his platoon in Iraq in March 2004, a year after the fall of Baghdad.

On April 15, 2004, Pantano and his men were dispatched to investigate a house outside Mahmudiya that intelligence indicated was being occupied by insurgents. Wary of being drawn into an ambush, he sent a dozen men to raid the house while the rest guarded the flanks. Suddenly a white car approached. Pantano’s Marines fired warning shots, and the two unarmed men inside the vehicle surrendered.

After the two Iraqis had been detained, Pantano dispatched one of his Marines to inspect their vehicle. His troops found a sizeable weapons cache inside the house and, taking no chances, Pantano ordered the captured Iraqis to thoroughly re-inspect the vehicle. Accompanied by two other Marines, both with their backs turned to him, Pantano supervised the Iraqis as they looked for weapons. Believing that the men — who ignored orders to stop whispering and then turned on him abruptly — had decided to charge him, Pantano opened fire, killing both.

One of the men with his back turned, a sergeant who had clashed with Pantano in the past, filed a report claiming Pantano had unjustly executed the captured Iraqis. Pantano was relieved of his command and faced charges that, were he convicted, could have resulted in the death penalty.

“It’s amazing to face murder charges in the high intensity combat in which we were in,” Pantano told TheDC. “It’s like getting a speeding ticket at the Indy 500.”

Eventually the case against Pantano fell apart. No one could corroborate the sergeant’s allegations and the evidence, including autopsies of the dead Iraqis, seemed to exonerate him of any wrongdoing.

The military dismissed the charges in May 2005, but not before Pantano underwent what he feels was unfair treatment from some media outlets. “This was in the wake of [the] Abu Ghraib [torture scandal], and they were looking for a scapegoat,” he said.

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