COURTESY CORRALES FAMILY Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales earlier this summer briefed Gen. David Petraeus on a combat mission in Iraq. CLICK FOR LARGE

Accused soldier's wife stands behind him

Sgt. Trey Corrales is charged with killing an Iraqi in custody

Two photos on Sgt. 1st Class Trey A. Corrales' Web site depict the Schofield Barracks soldier briefing Gen. David Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, during a combat mission earlier this summer.

"He was extremely proud of that," says his wife, Lily Corrales.

Corrales says those photos best portray her husband as the consummate warrior and not the person charged by the Army with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi.

Trey Corrales of San Antonio was charged July 17 with ordering the killing of an Iraqi that he and Spc. Christopher Shore, of Winder, Ga., had in their custody in Kirkuk. Both are members of the 25th Infantry Division and could face the death penalty if convicted at a court-martial of premeditated murder.

Their case is one of at least seven in which soldiers have been charged with killing Iraqis.

Lily Corrales said her husband, who will mark his 14th year in the Army in November, has been separated from his platoon and is now assigned to Forward Operating Base McHenry in Iraq. Shore, 25, is in Iraq at Forward Operating Base Warrior.

When they were charged, Corrales, 34, and Shore were infantry scouts with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. They believed the Iraqi was a terrorist, family members have said.

Lily Corrales, who served in the Army for three years as a pharmacy technician, said she talks regularly by phone with her husband and that he said he isn't bitter.

"I just talked with him," said Corrales, who lives with the couple's two children in Aliamanu, "and he told me that if everything works out in his favor, he wants to stay in and finish his 20 years."

She doesn't like the way the Army has presented the incident, which occurred on June 23 at Al-Saheed near Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Corrales' civilian attorney, retired Air Force officer Frank Spinner, has told her to not discuss the specifics of the case.

Spinner has taken on numerous high-profile military cases.

Lily Corrales said her husband "would never do anything that would jeopardize his family or his career. Being a soldier is something he has always wanted to do as a child.

"I believe in my husband. I have faith in my husband. I believe he was doing what he was told and what was right."

In the charge sheet released by the 25th Division, the Army alleged that Corrales shot an Iraq detainee several times with his rifle and then ordered Shore to do the same. The incident was reported by fellow 3rd Brigade Combat Team soldiers, the Army reported.

Lily Corrales said her husband, who served in Afghanistan in 2004 with the 25th Division, has been awarded two Bronze Star medals and the Audie Murphy award, which singles out infantry soldiers for soldiering skills.

Although the two grew up in the same San Antonio neighborhood, Lily Corrales said they started dating after graduating from different high schools. They were married in 1997.

COURTESY CORRALES FAMILY Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales, shown here with his 6-year-old daughter, Victoria, is not guilty of murdering an Iraqi, his wife says. Corrales is one of two Schofield Barracks soldiers accused of the crime. CLICK FOR LARGE

Trey Corrales enlisted in the Army in 1993 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks in 2004.

The Army hasn't told her when her husband will go before an Article 32 hearing, similar to civilian preliminary hearing, to determine whether he will be tried at a court-martial. The hearing is expected to be held in northern Iraq. If a court-martial is held, it probably will be at Schofield Barracks.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, who commands the 25th Infantry Division and Multinational Division-North, will determine whether Corrales and Shore will face a court-martial based upon the findings of the Article 32 hearing.

Because of the cost of hiring a civilian attorney, the couple has started a defense fund at Bank of America. It is listed on Corrales' Web site, www.treycorrales.com.

Besides photos of Corrales with his son and daughter and of him coaching his son's football team, the site features several photos of Corrales' platoon.

Another Schofield Barracks soldier, Pfc. Edward Richmond Jr., was convicted of killing an Iraqi civilian.

Richmond -- assigned to Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry -- was charged In August 2004, with other soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, with killing an Iraqi civilian in their custody.

Richmond, of Gonzales, La., was the only 25th Infantry Division soldier convicted in the shooting. He said that he was following the orders of his unit commander, Sgt. Jeffrey D. Waruch. He was sentenced to three years, but was paroled after two years.

Waruch was implicated in another shooting incident that same year involving the death of a 13-year-old Iraqi girl and the wounding of her mother and sister. However, Waruch was allowed to leave the Army without being charged.