CAMP PENDLETON --- A Marine on trial for killing a suspected insurgent in Iraq told an investigator he shouldn't be prosecuted for an act occurring "in the fog" of battle.

"This was war," Sgt. Ryan Weemer said in a dramatic, taped interview with the investigator that was played in court Wednesday morning. "This is where someone has shot your best friend. It's not pretty, and I don't deserve to be in trouble because I did what I had to do over there."

Weemer also said in the 2006 interview aired on the second day of his trial that he had been ordered to kill the man. In a calm voice, he said everything that happened inside a home in the Iraqi city of Fallujah took place in a flash.

"This happened in a split second in the fog of war," Weemer told Special Agent Mark Fox of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. "If anyone else had been there, the same thing would have happened. I don't feel I did anything wrong."

Weemer, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges of unpremeditated murder and failing to follow the military's rules for handling prisoners. Prosecutors allege he shot one of four suspected insurgents captured inside a home in the opening hours of a bloody battle for the city of Fallujah on Nov. 9, 2004.

Another accused, former Marine Sgt. Jose L. Nazario Jr., was acquitted last year for his role in the incident. A third suspect, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, is slated to go on trial at Camp Pendleton later this spring or summer.

Weemer, a corporal when the incident took place, says that he and then-squad leader Nazario had been directed by radio to "take care of it" after reporting they had captured the men. After that, Weemer says they were asked, "Are they dead yet?"

"I don't feel like I had an option to disobey an order -- I'm not like that," Weemer told Fox.

The native of Oakland, Ill., talks at length about how minutes before the shooting his best friend and longtime roommate, Lance Cpl. Juan Segura, was mortally wounded when shot in the back by an insurgent sniper.

Weemer said he was covered in Segura's blood and would be for the next four days as his squad from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment fought its way through Fallujah in the largest urban battle involving U.S. troops since the Vietnam War.

After leaving the Marine Corps, Weemer said he tried for two years to forget about everything that happened in Fallujah.

"This came up because I was trying to get a job," he said, referring to when he first disclosed the shooting during an employment interview with the Secret Service.

Weemer sat stoically throughout the playing of the tape as his wife, sister and a former English teacher sat behind him.

In opening statements Tuesday, lead defense attorney Paul Hackett told the eight officers on the jury that Weemer was following orders and also is asserting self-defense by claiming the suspected insurgent lunged for his gun.

That claim is bolstered by a Marine who told authorities that Weemer said minutes after the incident that he shot the man when the man tried to wrest away Weemer's pistol.

Prosecutors are trying to convince the combat-experienced jurors that Weemer should be convicted because, in portions of other statements, he flatly says he killed an unarmed man and makes no mention of self-defense. They also intimate the killing was a vengeful act carried out after Segura was shot.

No bodies were ever recovered; no names have been attached to the men who were killed and no complaining survivors have emerged.

Fox testified Wednesday that in two searches of the home, no remains, bullets, shell casings or signs of spilled blood were found, despite chemical tests.

Nazario and Nelson have been subpoenaed by prosecutors, but each may refuse to say anything.

Nelson and Weemer defied subpoenas to testify at Nazario's trial in August. A few months earlier, they were briefly jailed when they would not answer questions before a grand jury investigating Nazario's role.

Nazario was tried as a civilian in federal court in Riverside because he was no longer subject to recall into the service as was Weemer. Jurors who heard his case later said they did not believe it was proper for civilians to second-guess actions occurring on a foreign battlefield.

In order to convict Weemer, two-thirds of the jury must agree. If he is found guilty on any charge, the jury decides any punishment, which is then subject to review by Camp Pendleton's Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, the convening authority overseeing the case.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.