Michael Winter

USA TODAY

A federal jury Wednesday convicted four former Blackwater guards of a 2007 shooting that killed 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians and wounded 17 others as a U.S. diplomatic convoy drove through Baghdad.

Nicholas Slatten, who fired the first shots in crowded Nisour Square, was found guilty of first-degree murder. The three other guards — Paul Slough, 35, of Keller, Texas; Evan Liberty,32, of Rochester, N.H., and Dustin Heard, 33, of Knoxville, Tenn. — were convicted of multiple counts of voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and firearms violations.

When sentenced, the 30-year-old Slatten, of Sparta, Tenn., could face life in prison and the others decades behind bars. All are U.S. military veterans.

The verdicts came after six weeks of deliberations and a 10-week trial in Washington, D.C. The September 2007 shootings enraged Iraqis and changed how U.S. contractors were used.

Indicted in 2008, the defendants claimed they fired in self-defense, while their lawyers argued they should not be prosecuted because they were protecting State Department personnel and not part of the Pentagon's military mission. Washington blocked Baghdad from prosecuting the guards under Iraqi law.

In 2009, a federal judge dismissed the charges, claiming the Justice Department had mishandled evidence. But in 2011, an appeals court reinstated the case.

Another guard, Jeremy Ridgeway, had pleaded guilty under a deal for reduced prison time and testified for the government.

"This verdict is a resounding affirmation of the commitment of the American people to the rule of law, even in times of war," U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr., whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement. "I pray that this verdict will bring some sense of comfort to the survivors of that massacre."



One of Heard's lawyers, David Schertler, called the verdict "wrong" and "incomprehensible."

"We're devastated," he told reporters. "We're going to fight it every step of the way. We still think we're going to win."



One of the wounded Iraqis, Hassan Jabir, told the Associated Press in Baghdad that "at last we are hearing good news where justice has been achieved and Blackwater will receive their punishment."

Blackwater Worldwide was founded in 1997 by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince. Amid the bad publicity for private military security contractors following the Baghdad killings, the company changed its name to Xe Services in 2009, and then to Academi in 2011, a year after it was sold to private investors.