"He slaughtered our husbands, and that's it?" yelled Allen's widow, Barbara Allen, moments after the verdict was read. Someone else shouted out that Martinez was a "murdering son of a bitch" before the judge ordered the courtroom cleared.
The jury spent two days deliberating after a six-week trial at Fort Bragg, during which Martinez chose not to testify. The New York Army National Guard soldier could have faced the death penalty if he had been convicted.
Martinez, 41, of Troy, N.Y., was the first soldier from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to have been accused of killing a direct superior, a crime known as "fragging" during the Vietnam War. All three were members of the 42d Infantry Division.
Witnesses had testified that Esposito and Martinez were at odds because the officer thought Martinez was lax in his operation of the unit's supply room.
Before reaching a verdict, military jurors spent several hours yesterday reviewing the recorded testimony of trial witnesses, including a sergeant who said she had delivered explosives to the supply room Martinez oversaw shortly before the bombing.
