By Hart Matthews FORT BRAGG, N.C., Nov 3 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army National Guard soldier was arraigned on Friday on charges of killing two superior officers in Iraq and could face the death penalty after a trial starting in June. In the first case of a U.S. soldier charged with killing, or "fragging," his commanding officers in the Iraq war, Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez faces two counts of premeditated murder in the June 2005 deaths of company commander Capt. Phillip Esposito and 1st Lt. Louis Allen at a base near Tikrit, Iraq. Martinez, a former supply sergeant in the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry Division, is also being tried on three counts relating to wrongful possession of a privately owned firearm, unexploded ordnance and alcohol, and one count of giving printers and copiers to an Iraqi national. Martinez declined to enter a plea during his arraignment at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, or to make a choice of what kind of military panel he wanted to face court-martial before. Defendants in a U.S. military trial have the option to have a panel made up purely of officers decide their verdict or a panel of which at least one third are enlisted personnel. The presiding judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, set a tentative trial date of June 4, 2007. The widows of Esposito and Allen attended the 30-minute arraignment with numerous family members. They did not speak to the media. The army alleges that Martinez detonated a land mine and several grenades outside Allen's office in Tikrit. An earlier hearing heard testimony that Allen had relieved Martinez of his duties as supply sergeant at the headquarters company of the 42nd Infantry Division, a reserve unit drawn from the New York Army National Guard. Investigators originally blamed a mortar attack for the explosion at Forward Operating Base Danger, located at one of deposed president Saddam Hussein's palaces, 80 miles (130 km) north of Baghdad. Martinez was deployed to Iraq in late 2004. He had previously been deployed to New York City in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and was awarded medals for his service there. The murders in Tikrit were the first case of a U.S. soldier accused of killing his superiors in the Iraq war. In an earlier incident, Sgt. Hasan Akbar was convicted of murdering two officers after rolling grenades into their tents in Kuwait on the eve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
