Pity (and the lack thereof)

Leavenworth's newest "girlfriend"

A Private with the Army's 101st Airborne Division has been sentenced to twenty-five years for a mind-bogglingly vast array of crimes, including attempted rape and forty-two counts of attempted murder:

Soldier gets 25 years for post shooting

Pvt. Mikel initially spent two months in a Florida jail for a string of burglaries while he was on leave lasy year. While he was detained, his unit deployed to Iraq. It was decided that he would be processed for discharge from the Army, and after receiving a sentence of four years' probation he returned to Fort Campbell, KY, where one of his superiors wrote up an extremely adverse personnel evaluation (Gee, ya think?).

Apparently, he was out for revenge; using a revolver he had stolen from his parents' home, he fired into a formation of troops at their morning physical training, thankfully hitting nobody. Sorry sod couldn't even shoot, why the hell was he in the Army in the first place? The night prior he had attempted to rape a female soldier in the barracks; those charges were added to his name but reduced to assault and battery.

All in all, he had such a rap sheet that the judge had it in mind to sentence him to fifty years in prison; a plea agreement reduced it to twenty-five years, a dishonorable discharge, and forfeiture of all pay and allowances until his end of service in July 2007 (Once again.... Gee, ya think?)

I would feel sorry for him if not for this particularly vexing quote showing that he has a hard time believing he's accountable for his own actions:

"It's difficult to know that it was my own conduct that caused this."

Boo-hoo. You betrayed the trust and confidence of your fellow soldiers. Hope you like playing the catcher, Nicky boy.