McClatchy Washington Bureau

Print This Article

Alleged “kill team” ringleader Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs was “very calm, very cool, very collected” last year as he unwrapped a pair of human fingers and threatened a private who raised an alarm about drug use in their platoon, the whistleblower testified Thursday.

Gibbs “was playing with this little thing in his hand. He just kind of undid the cloth and rolled two fingers on the ground,” Pfc. Justin Stoner said in a courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Gibbs “said something along the lines of, ‘If you don’t want to end up like this guy, you’ll keep your mouth shut,’ ” Stoner recalled.

Gibbs, 26, is on trial this week facing life in prison on charges that he murdered three Afghan civilians during his deployment last year with a Lewis-McChord Stryker brigade. The prosecution wrapped up its case Thursday.

The squad leader from Billings, Mont., faces 13 other criminal charges, including ones centering on possessing human body parts and assaulting Stoner. Gibbs admits keeping the war trophies but denies knowingly participating in staged murders.

Read the complete story at thenewstribune.com