The Adam Winfield Court-Martial: The Soldier Who Warned His Father
On this page
Army Specialist Adam Winfield wrote to his father on Facebook in February 2010 that soldiers in his platoon had killed an Afghan civilian and planned more killings. His father, Christopher Winfield, a former Marine, called Army offices that day. Two more civilians were killed before the soldiers were arrested in May. Winfield was charged with murder for his part in the third killing. In August 2011 he pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and a drug offense, agreed to testify against others, and was sentenced to three years, reduction to private, forfeiture of all pay, and a bad-conduct discharge. His case marks the line between murder under Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and involuntary manslaughter under Article 119. It also shows what an attempt to report a crime can and cannot do for the person who made it.
The Winfield Record in Brief
| Item | Record |
|---|---|
| Accused | Specialist Adam Winfield of Cape Coral, Florida, 5th Stryker Brigade |
| Original charge | Murder for his part in the third killing, in May 2010; a maximum of life without parole, according to ABC News |
| Plea (Aug. 2011) | Guilty to involuntary manslaughter and a drug charge (hashish use), under an agreement to testify against others |
| Exposure under the agreement | Up to eight years, according to the base public affairs office |
| Sentence | Three years, reduction to private, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, bad-conduct discharge; 517 days of pretrial confinement credited |
| Clemency | Denied by Maj. Gen. Lloyd Miles on April 5, 2012 |
The Warning and What Followed
NPR reported in September 2010 that Adam Winfield “complained in Facebook messages to his father” about Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs. CNN, reporting on the 2011 Gibbs trial, said the message was written “on February 14, 2010.” The Associated Press, in a report carried by CBS News in October 2010, said Christopher Winfield’s “phone records show he made several calls that day to Joint Base Lewis-McChord,” and that he “left voice-mail messages at a Defense Department hot line and at the base’s criminal investigations division.” The report also said “By the time suspects were arrested in May, three months after Winfield’s alleged warning, two more civilians had been killed.”
According to the same AP report, in the third killing Winfield “was ordered to shoot after Gibbs, the highest ranking soldier charged, tossed a grenade at the unarmed man.” His attorney “said Winfield deliberately shot high so as not to hit the civilian.” CNN reported that Winfield later testified “he was afraid for his own life” and that by May he “had shifted from wanting to expose Gibbs to trying to get into the sergeant’s good graces.”
Murder and Involuntary Manslaughter: Where the Plea Landed
Article 118 requires, for its first two forms, a premeditated design to kill or an intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm. Article 119 covers an unlawful killing without that intent. The Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part IV, paragraph 57, describes involuntary manslaughter by culpable negligence. Culpable negligence “is a degree of carelessness greater than simple negligence. It is a negligent act or omission accompanied by a culpable disregard for the foreseeable consequences to others of that act or omission.” The Manual also notes that “When there is no legal duty to act there can be no neglect.”
| Offense | Mental element | Maximum (MCM 2024) | App. 12C category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premeditated murder, Art. 118(1) | premeditated design to kill | death; mandatory minimum life with eligibility for parole | Category 6 |
| Involuntary manslaughter, Art. 119 | culpable negligence, or a killing during certain offenses directly affecting the person | dishonorable discharge, total forfeitures, 10 years | Category 3, 30 to 120 months |
The table shows today’s law, not the rules applied in 2011. The Appendix 12C categories cover offenses committed after December 27, 2023, and under R.C.M. 925(b) an accused “convicted of any offense for which death may be adjudged” is sentenced under R.C.M. 1004, not under a category.
By pleading to involuntary manslaughter, Winfield admitted culpable conduct that contributed to a death, without admitting intent to kill. His agreement capped his exposure at eight years, according to Maj. Chris Ophardt of the base public affairs office, as quoted in a Fort Myers newspaper report. The judge imposed three years.
The Warning as Mitigation, Not a Defense
An attempt to report a crime is not a defense to an offense the reporter later took part in. Duress requires a reasonable fear of immediate death or serious bodily injury, and Rule for Courts-Martial 916(h) excludes it entirely as a defense to killing an innocent person. Winfield’s account was not that he was forced to kill. He said he fired high and failed to stop what happened. His messages and his father’s calls became mitigation, evidence that could lower the punishment for a culpable failure without erasing it.
After the sentence, his family sought clemency. HeraldNet reported in April 2012 that Maj. Gen. Lloyd Miles “denied clemency on April 5; he did not state a reason.” Christopher Winfield said clemency “would have acknowledged that Adam was telling the truth from the beginning, that he tried to do the right thing.”
Where Winfield Fits Among the Others
| Accused | Resolution | Reported sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Spc. Jeremy Morlock | Guilty plea with cooperation, Mar. 2011 | 24 years |
| Spc. Adam Winfield | Guilty plea to involuntary manslaughter, Aug. 2011 | 3 years, bad-conduct discharge |
| Pfc. Andrew Holmes | Guilty plea to murder by an inherently dangerous act, Sept. 2011 | 7 years |
| Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs | Contested trial, Nov. 2011 | Life with eligibility for parole |
Intent and Warning Are Separate Questions
The Winfield case separates two questions. The first is whether a soldier intended a killing, which is the line between Article 118 and Article 119. The second is whether that soldier tried to stop the conduct, which the law treats as mitigation. A documented warning, even one sent before a killing, does not by itself dissolve liability for what the soldier later did or failed to do. When a warning was given and others did not act on it, that is a question about the response, separate from the warning soldier’s own culpability.
Sources
- NPR, “Father: Army Ignored Complaints Of Afghan Slayings”, Sept. 22, 2010
- CBS News (Associated Press), “Army Looks Into Plot Warning from Soldier’s Dad”, Oct. 1, 2010
- CNN, “U.S. Army sergeant to be tried for alleged Afghan sport killings”, Oct. 28, 2011
- ABC News, “Afghan Kill Team Whistleblower To Plead Guilty”, Aug. 2, 2011
- Beach Observer (Fort Myers), “Soldier from Cape receives three years”, Aug. 2011
- HeraldNet, “Army denies clemency in 2010 ‘thrill kill’ case”, Apr. 18, 2012
- 10 U.S.C. 918, Article 118, Murder (Cornell LII)
- 10 U.S.C. 919, Article 119, Manslaughter (Cornell LII)
- Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Part II, R.C.M. 916(h), R.C.M. 925(b); Part IV, para. 56 and para. 57; Appendix 12C.
This case study describes a public court-martial record and contemporaneous reporting. It is educational information, not legal advice.