AAA Aug. 21, 2013 2:47 PM ET Brother testifies for defense in Afghan massacre By GENE JOHNSON By GENE JOHNSON In this courtroom sketch, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, left, appears before Judge Col. Jeffery Nance in a courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, during a sentencing hearing in the slayings of 16 civilians killed during pre-dawn raids on two villages on March 11, 2012. Haji Mohammad Naim, an Afghan farmer shot during a massacre in Kandahar Province last year, took the witness stand Tuesday against Bales, who attacked his village, cursing him before breaking down and pleading with the prosecutor not to ask him any more questions. AP Photo/Peter Millet In this courtroom sketch, Haji Mohammad Naim testifies Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, in a courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle. Naim, an Afghan farmer shot during a massacre in Kandahar Province last year, took the witness stand Tuesday at a sentencing hearing for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who attacked his village and one other in pre-dawn raids on March 11, 2012, killing 16 civilians. Naim cursed Bales him before breaking down and pleading with the prosecutor not to ask him any more questions. In this courtroom sketch Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, foreground, is seated as prosecutor Lt Col. Jay Morse, right, speaks to the jury in a courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. during a sentencing hearing in the slayings of 16 civilians killed during pre-dawn raids on two villages on March 11, 2012. In this courtroom sketch, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, foreground, is seated in a courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, during a sentencing hearing in the slayings of 16 civilians killed during pre-dawn raids on two villages on March 11, 2012. Also shown are, from left, defense attorney Emma Scanlan, Judge Col. Jeffery Nance, and prosecutor Lt. Col. Jay Morse. In this courtroom sketch, an Afghan man named Faizullah, about 30 years old, testifies in a courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013, about how his father, Haji Mohammad Naim, and brother Sadiquallah were shot and wounded when Staff Sgt. Robert Bales attacked their village in Kandahar Province. Witnesses to the massacre in Kandahar Province last year took the witness stand Tuesday as a sentencing hearing began for Bales in the slayings of 16 civilians killed during pre-dawn raids on two villages on March 11, 2012. (AP) - An older brother of the U.S. soldier who massacred 16 Afghan civilians last year is telling a military jury about what his sibling was like as a youth. Bill Bales says Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was an outgoing youngster who served as his high school class president and captain of the football team in Norwood, Ohio, where they grew up. The elder Bales is the first defense witness in the case to determine if his brother should receive life in prison with the possibility of parole, or without it. He also recalled their late father's struggles with alcohol, and his fervent religious belief. Bales pleaded guilty in June in a deal to avoid the death penalty for the solo pre-dawn attacks on two villages in March 2012.