Career
Kitterman was a former United States Navy chief petty officer He had worked in Iraq since the United States invasion in 2003, for Kellogg, Brown and Root and other firms. He was the president of his own construction firm Janus Construction, based in Houston.
Cable News Network reported on June 7, 2009 that Kitterman had been bound, blindfolded and gagged, prior to being stabbed.
Five men were arrested on June 5, 2009 at the barracks and office of security firm Corporate Training Unlimited (CTU). The Washington Post reported that the five suspects were arrested by Iraqi authorities following a tip from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Associated Press reported that the five men were arrested during a raid on the Corporate Training Unlimited"s offices and barracks because their weapons permits had expired.
Iraqi officials suspected that they were involved in the murder. Later, Cable News Network quoted officials at the United States Embassy who stated the five men were not suspected of the murder and that all five had alibis.
"Just being in the Green Zone for six years, they became very close.
Everyone is deeply upset about the loss of Jim Kitterman and our deepest sympathy goes to his family."
One of the proclamation of America"s administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, was that American contractors would be immune from prosecution in Iraqi courts. This proclamation remained in effect until the Iraqi legislature countermanded it in 2008. Release
Three of the contractors were later released on June 11 due to lack of evidence.
Milligan and Jones, who were held longer by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were released in July.
Two Iraqis testified in the ICCC (Iraqi Central Criminal Court) said that Kitterman"s murder was committed by another American who himself was killed not long afterward. Larry Eugene Young, a CTU employee, was killed by mortar fire in the Green Zone on the same day as Kitterman"s murder.
