07/15/2005

Associated Press

A soldier who received the Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq and returned to Fort Lewis in April has been charged with premeditated murder in the death of his wife, Army officials said.

Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, of Wilkesboro, N.C., was arrested Tuesday and jailed at the Regional Correctional Facility at Fort Lewis following the discovery of the body of his wife, Nabila Bare, 18, at the couple's home in the Clarkdale housing area on the post south of Tacoma.

Army officials would not say how she died or whether the couple had history of domestic violence.

Prosecution will be handled within the military justice system, rather than in civilian courts, post spokesman JC Mathews said Thursday.

The dead woman's father, William Neverette, also a soldier stationed at Fort Lewis, said little about the case except that his daughter "was a very sweet young woman ... full of life" and planning to attend Lakes High School in the fall to complete her senior year.

Bare was assigned to Fort Lewis in November 2003 after receiving his initial training at Fort Benning, Ga., and was sent to Iraq last fall as a member of the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, the Stryker Brigade.

He was treated for head injuries after being thrown from a vehicle by a bomb explosion in Iraq and was left with hearing difficulties and other problems, said Miguel Angel Lorian, who helped rear him in North Carolina.

"He came back here about a month ago to visit, and he was different," Lorian said. "He was not all right."

Military officials would not comment on Bare's injury or condition following treatment for his war wounds.

It was the third time in the past two years that a Washington-based soldier back from Iraq has been accused of killing his wife but apparently the first killing at Fort Lewis in at least five years, Army officials said.

"We have had increases in domestic violence after they return but also prior to deployment as people start sorting out how they feel about their relationship," said Billie Stewart, family advocacy manager at Fort Lewis. "I think that this is probably true with most installations. It's not unique to us."

Bare was not involved in any family advocacy programs designed to prevent domestic violence at the base but was involved in a separate program that offers counseling and other treatment through the Behavioral Health Department at neighboring Madigan Army Medical Center, Stewart said.

Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew J. Denni, 39, of Battle Ground, was convicted in February of second-degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison for the shooting of his wife, Kimberly Faye Denni, 37, in November 2003.

Denni was charged with first-degree murder, but a jury found him guilty of the lesser offense after defense lawyers argued that his experiences in Iraq might have helped trigger a crime of passion.

Last month Sgt. 1st Class James Kevin Pitts, 32, of Sheffield Lake, Ohio, was sentenced to 20 years for first-degree murder in the bathroom drowning of his wife, Tara Pitts, 28. She was killed in April 2004 weeks after Pitts returned to Fort Lewis after serving Iraq.

Both of those cases were prosecuted in civilian courts because the killings did not occur on a military base.