WHEELER ARMY AIRFIELD — Starkly different versions of the shooting death of an Iraqi man were related yesterday at the opening of the court-martial of a Schofield Barracks soldier accused of premeditated murder.

A defense lawyer said Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales was acting on reflex and was within the military rules of engagement when he shot "an insurgent" in the backyard of a house.

A prosecutor, however, said Corrales acted illegally as "judge, jury and executioner" with the Iraqi, whom one soldier said was clearly in U.S. custody.

Fellow soldiers said Corrales pulled the unarmed Iraqi man out of the house, tried to get him to hold an AK-47 rifle, told him to run — even getting an interpreter to say "run" in Arabic — and then shot the man multiple times with his M-4 rifle.

In addition to the premeditated murder charge, Corrales, 35, also faces a charge of wrongfully soliciting another soldier to shoot the Iraqi during the nighttime raid.

The San Antonio man also is accused of impeding a military investigation by having an AK-47 rifle placed near the victim.

The married father of three faces a maximum of life in prison without parole if he is convicted of premeditated murder by the nine-member jury of enlisted soldiers and officers. The trial continues today.

A second Schofield soldier was convicted in February of aggravated assault after being accused of shooting the Iraqi man upon being ordered to do so by Corrales.

Corrales and Pvt. Christopher Shore, 26, of Winder, Ga., are accused of shooting the still-unidentified man on June 23, 2007, after a raid in the village of al Saheed outside Kirkuk.

More than 7,000 Schofield soldiers were serving in northern Iraq at the time.

The "target house" had been under observation by U.S. helicopters that had been shot at, and individuals inside the house were suspected of having planted roadside bombs.

Frank Spinner, a defense attorney for Corrales, said the issue of Corrales shooting the Iraqi is not contested.

But in opening statements yesterday, he said the question is "very simply put, did (Corrales) act reflexively or did he act reflectively?"

Spinner said the government would say Corrales thought about what he was going to do.

But "the defense theory of the case is that Sgt. 1st Class Corrales acted reflexively" when he saw a man believed to be an insurgent in an unsecured backyard.

Spinner said that Corrales will tell the jury that he did not push the Iraqi to the back yard of the house and that he does not know how the man got there.

According to Spinner, Corrales will tell the court, "What I do know is that when I went to check the backyard, I saw an insurgent back there."

The soldier was concerned there was the potential that someone had buried an AK-47 in the backyard or that the man had access to one.

Spinner said Corrales will tell the court "I did reflexively what I was trained to do as a soldier" when he shot the man.

The defense attorney also said Corrales did not order Shore to shoot the Iraqi, and if Shore did shoot him, "then who caused the insurgent's death?"

But Capt. Laura O'Donnell, the prosecutor, said that on that night, Corrales stepped out of his role of a soldier and stepped into the role of "judge, jury and executioner."

She said that earlier Corrales had told his soldiers to kill all military-age males in the village.

That night, "the accused went into that objective house, he found that detainee, he found him guilty, he sentenced him to death, and he took him out to that backyard and he executed him," O'Donnell said.

The mission began after U.S. helicopters came under fire. The Scouts platoon that Corrales led, part of the 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry, believed that Alpha Company soldiers were pinned down in a house.

Spinner revealed that military planners had discussed dropping a bomb on the target house, which possibly would have killed the more than nine men, women and children inside.

Instead, the Scouts platoon of about 20 soldiers was dispatched by helicopter, but then waited for more than an hour outside the village until the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Michael Browder, showed up.

The soldiers hit the wall of the house with an AT-4 anti-armor rocket, then secured the house without any gunshots. No weapons were found.

Some soldiers testified yesterday that Corrales said he was going to kill the next Iraqi who turned up positive on an explosives residue test that was administered.

Spc. Franklin Hambrick said Corrales took an Iraqi outside who was "confused, wondering what was going on." He was told to run, he said.

"He just looked at us. Had his hands up," Hambrick said.

That's when Corrales started raising his M-4 rifle to fire, Hambrick said, adding that he looked away, and as he did so, he heard three to five shots.

Shore, the soldier who was accused of shooting the Iraqi along with Corrales, yesterday testified that Corrales ordered him to "finish" the wounded Iraqi as the man lay in a ditch.

At one point yesterday, Shore, who is serving a 120-day sentence in the brig at Ford Island, looked like he would not be able to continue as his eyes welled up.

He said he fired two shots off to the side of the Iraqi's head.

Shore said that "as we were leaving the area, Sgt. Corrales told me that I wasn't there (when the shooting occurred.)"

As Corrales subsequently queried his soldiers on their reaction to the incident, the name of their battalion commander, Browder, came up.

"He (Corrales) told me that Col. Browder said everything is all right. That we were good," Shore said.

Shore, of Winder, Ga., added that he had "heard rumors about things being swept under the rug."

A group of soldiers, Shore included, brought the incident to the attention of commanders.

Browder, who was relieved of command in Iraq, is expected to testify under a grant of immunity at Corrales' trial.

Special Agent Jesse Whaley, an Army investigator, yesterday testified that in a seven-hour interview at Kirkuk Airbase a few days after the shooting, Corrales told several versions of what happened.

Whaley said Corrales eventually admitted trying to get the Iraqi to take an AK-47 rifle, pushing the man out of the house, and telling the interpreter to tell him to run.

"He ended up shooting that detainee approximately four times," Whaley said.

At the end of the interview, Corrales became upset and cried, Whaley said.

"He told me he was so scared, so f---ed, words to that effect, and he was going to jail for murder," the agent said.

Spinner, the defense attorney, criticized Whaley for not recording the interview.