"The plan was to kill people, sir," Army specialist Jeremy Morlock readily admitted when asked if he was merely trying to scare Afghan civilians by shooting near them. For his premeditated murders and staging combat situations (planting grenades and rifles next to the dead) to cover up those murders, he becomes the first American soldier of the five charged to be sentenced to prison time: 24 years.

During the court proceedings, Morlock explained that he lost his "moral compass" in Afghanistan, which resulted in his killing and then posing with the dead civilians. Earlier this week, the German media outlet Der Speigel published grisly photographs of the U.S. Army "Kill Team" acting unconcerned while posing with the dead Afghan civilians. The Army issued an apology for the published photos, calling them "repugnant."

Reuters reports that Morlock "implicated the four other members of his infantry unit's so-called 'kill team' and agreed to testify further against them if called as a prosecution witness for their courts-martial."

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Erik Hayden