Witness: Paratrooper tired of lying to cover up medic's death

Spc. Tyler Cain, 21, is charged with obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements in connection with the death of Spc. Morganne McBeth.

McBeth, 19, of Fredericksburg, Va., died July 2 in Al Asad, Iraq, of injuries sustained a day earlier in a non-combat-related incident in Khan Al Baghdadi, Iraq, according to a military statement issued at the time of her death.

The Army initially investigated the death as an accident, but a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigative Command said last month that investigators were treating the case as a homicide because they didn't believe the statements they were given.

Spc. Nicholas Bailey of Pflugerville, Texas, was charged two weeks ago with involuntary manslaughter and obstruction of justice in the case.

Prosecutors said Cain told Army investigators in three statements that Bailey had stabbed a poster on a wall with his knife and that he had to use a lot of force to get it out of the wall. When the knife finally broke free, it struck McBeth, who had just walked behind him, according to his statements.

In a fourth statement, Cain changed his story, saying Bailey had been wildly flailing the knife around and struck the wall and then accidentally stabbed McBeth when he turned around, according to prosecutors.

The investigator who took that last statement from Cain and gave him two polygraph tests was called to testify Wednesday during the Article 32 hearing in a military court at Fort Bragg.

He said Cain told him he didn't want to lie and get into anymore trouble.

Bailey's Article 32 hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4.