* Sergeant accused of hazing shy Chinese-American soldier
* Negligent homicide charge could land him years in prison
* Seven other superiors also face charges in the case
(Adds details)
FORT BRAGG, N.C., July 25 (Reuters) - A black soldier
testified at a court-martial on Wednesday that he endured racial
slurs from the same U.S. Army sergeant whose hazing, according
to military officials, led a Chinese-American soldier to commit
suicide.
Private Marcus Merritt said he also considered killing
himself to escape the verbal abuse of Sergeant Adam Holcomb, who
Merritt said called him "niglet" and threatened to send him home
from Afghanistan in a body bag.
"He was in my face constantly," Merritt said on the second
day of Holcomb's military trial in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Holcomb, 30, is accused of hazing both Merritt and Private
Danny Chen, a 19-year-old born in New York City to Chinese
immigrant parents.
The sergeant faces a more serious allegation of negligent
homicide in connection with Chen's death. Military prosecutors
say Holcomb's physical mistreatment and racial harassment pushed
Chen to kill himself by gunshot in a guard tower in southern
Afghanistan last October.
Holcomb, who has pleaded not guilty, faces nearly 18 years
of confinement and a dishonorable discharge if convicted of the
charges against him.
Seven of Chen's other superiors from the Alaska-based 1st
Brigade, 25th Infantry Division were also charged in the case
and will be tried separately.
Holcomb's attorneys argue Chen killed himself because he was
failing as an infantryman and had been disowned by his parents
for joining the Army - an assertion Chen's mother and father
denied from the witness stand.
The service members who testified on Wednesday described
Chen as an inexperienced soldier who struggled with the heat,
routines and physical demands of deployment after joining a
small unit in Afghanistan in August.
NEVER MENTIONED SUICIDE
Specialist Zachary Bolin, a platoon medic, said he kept a
close eye on the new, young soldier. He said Chen was quiet and
shy at first, but Bolin noticed in the week before Chen's death
that he talked more and started hanging out with groups of other
soldiers.
"That took my guard down," Bolin said.
In late September, Bolin said Holcomb asked him to look at
Chen's back. Chen said it had gotten scraped up when the
sergeant dragged him across gravel after the lower-ranked
soldier left a water pump on in a shower against orders.
Chen never mentioned suicide, even when Bolin specifically
asked if he was considering it, the medic said. Five other
soldiers said they never saw signs Chen was suicidal.
Some said he did seem to get picked on or singled out more
than others for punishment. They said they heard Holcomb call
Chen racially derogatory names including "dragon lady," "Jackie
Chen" and "egg roll."
Several soldiers testified Chen never said whether the names
bothered him, but Private 1st Class Adrian Douglas said Chen
told him the references sometimes angered him. "But he felt like
he couldn't really do anything about it," Douglas said.
Holcomb's attorney said on Tuesday the sergeant only used
the term "dragon lady" and meant it affectionately in a military
culture where nicknames are common.
Private 1st Class Joshua Morgan said he and Chen were close
friends. Though Chen usually was in good spirits during their
deployment, Morgan said his friend confided that his parents had
disowned him.
Chen's father, Yan Tao Chen, denied on Wednesday that he and
his wife had cut off contact with their only child.
He said he thought "it was a glorious thing" that his son
joined the Army. "What I am most happy about is he was able to
choose what he wanted to do," he added.
(Editing by David Adams and Todd Eastham)