Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales, 34, of San Antonio, waived his right to the Article 32 hearing, which is similar to a civilian preliminary hearing or grand jury, according to the Army.

Corrales and Spc. Christopher Shore, 25, are accused of shooting an unarmed Iraqi man on June 23 after a raid in the village of al Saheed outside Kirkuk looking for insurgents planting roadside bombs.

The Army accused Shore, of Winder, Ga., of shooting the Iraqi after being ordered to do so by Corrales.

A fellow soldier testified at an Article 32 hearing on Thursday for Shore that Corrales pulled the Iraqi man out of a house that had been secured, and told him to run.

As the confused Iraqi started backing up, the soldier said he saw Corrales start to raise his weapon. The soldier said he turned, not wanting to see what came next, and heard up to five shots.

After being ordered to "finish" the wounded Iraqi by Corrales, Shore said "I had to act. I had to do something."

He said he fired two shots off to the side of the Iraqi's head in the dirt without Corrales seeing that he did not shoot the man. But he acknowledged that he had previously said he had shot at the Iraqi.

Several soldiers testified that Corrales was a mercurial and tyrannical platoon sergeant who told them to "kill all military-age males" encountered in the village and in the target house.

The soldiers said they did not want to get on Corrales' bad side because he wielded the power to kick them off the tight-knit and prestigious scouts platoon.

Shore's attorney at the Article 32 hearing asked the investigating officer, Lt. Col. Raul Gonzalez, to recommend that the charge be dropped against Shore.

Shore appeared relaxed at the hearing at Wheeler Army Airfield, smiling and joking with fellow soldiers in the gallery prior to the start of the proceedings.

Maj. Gen. Benjamin R. "Randy" Mixon, the commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield, ultimately will decide whether the two cases proceed to court-martial, and on what charges.

That decision is expected within weeks. Mixon still is in Iraq with the last of the approximately 7,000 Schofield soldiers who served more than a year there.