Soldier gets life sentence in Ga. militia slayings

LUDOWICI, Ga. (AP) — Saying his mind was scarred by combat and numbed by heroin, an Army soldier told a southeast Georgia judge today that he shot a teenage girl twice in the head because he thought he saw "the glint of a gun" as she opened her car door.

Sgt. Anthony Peden, 28, was sentenced to life in prison nearly a month after he pleaded guilty to murder charges in the December 2011 slayings of 17-year-old Tiffany York and her boyfriend, former soldier Michael Roark. Prosecutors say the couple was led to the woods near Fort Stewart in Georgia and slain by a group of soldiers to protect an anti-government militia group they had formed inside the military.

Peden's account sought to minimize his role. He said he wasn't close to the soldiers who led the group and the night of the slayings was told only that they planned to collect money from the couple. He said someone handed him a gun, and after they drove out to the woods he saw Roark leave his car and get into a struggle with one of the other soldiers. Then the car's passenger door began to open.

"I saw what I thought was the glint of a gun," said Peden, who sniffled and cried throughout his sentencing hearing. "I fired twice at Tiffany York."