A US Marine squad leader who boasted to his men they had gotten away with murder after kidnapping and killing an Iraqi grandfather was sentenced today to 15 years in prison.
The jury at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base pronounced the sentence, along with a reprimand and dishonorable discharge, after finding Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III guilty of unpremeditated murder, larceny and other crimes yesterday.
The prosecution had sought to convict him of premeditated murder, which could have brought a sentence of life in prison. A series of witnesses testified that Hutchins led the plot involving eight Americans.
The sentence concluded the trials against the Americans who initially targeted a Hamdania terror suspect in the 2006 incident, but grabbed his neighbor during the night when they could not find him.
Hutchins and another Marine shot Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, a father of 11 and grandfather of four, and then the unit set an AK-47 assault rifle and shovel next to the corpse to suggest he had been an insurgent planting a bomb, according to witnesses.
Also today, a separate military jury sentenced Cpl. Marshall Magincalda to 448 days in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy in the crime.
Because he has spent the last 450 days in detention, the punishment means Magincalda will be released from the brig on Friday and reduced in rank to private.
Six others had already been convicted in the Hamdania, Iraq case, one in a series in which US troops have been accused of abuse or killings of Iraqi civilians. The others in the case received sentences of between no additional time in prison and eight years behind bars.
The other shooter judged by a jury in July did not receive additional time in prison, surprising some legal experts.