Sgt. sentenced to 15 years in Hamdaniya case - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Sgt. sentenced to 15 years in Hamdaniya case

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A military jury on Friday sentenced a Marine squad leader to 15 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge after finding him guilty of unpremeditated murder and conspiracy in a plot to kidnap and kill an Iraqi man last year.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, 23, comforted his wife Reyna, kissing her on the cheek and grasping her shoulders as she slumped in tears. His parents, joined by friends and his 2-year-old daughter, were visibly upset at the verdict.

The jury of five officers and four staff noncommissioned officers had deliberated for about three hours before announcing their decision at 12:15 p.m., wrapping up a nine-day general court-martial.

A day earlier, the jury had also convicted Hutchins, of Plymouth, Mass., of larceny; making a false official statement; and conspiracy to commit murder, larceny, obstruction of justice and making a false official statement. Jury members acquitted Hutchins of kidnapping, assault, housebreaking and obstruction of justice.

The conviction and prison sentence marked a small victory for prosecutors who had initially sought murder convictions when they began legal proceedings last year against Hutchins and seven other members of his infantry squad. The seven Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman were charged with plotting to kidnap and kill a local man they suspected was an insurgent responsible for attacks against Marines in the area.

“The whole situation is tragic. ... It’s very sad,” one prosecutor said after the verdict was announced.

While Hutchins had been charged with premeditated murder, which carried a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, the jury found him guilty of unpremeditated murder, a lesser offense that carries no mandatory minimum or maximum sentence.

Hutchins is the only one of the eight squad members who was convicted of murder in the April 26, 2006, death in Hamdaniya. Five of the men — all junior Marines and the corpsman — took plea deals in exchange for their testimony, getting sentences that ranged from 12 months to eight years.

The corpsman and one of the Marines have already completed their sentences and been released from the brig.

The squad’s two team leaders were tried at general courts-martial, where juries acquitted them of premeditated murder but found them guilty of several other offenses.

On July 18, a military jury convicted one of the team leaders, Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, of conspiracy and kidnapping. The jury sentenced him to no additional jail time, reduction to private, forfeiture of all pay and benefits and a bad-conduct discharge.

Another jury on Aug. 1 acquitted Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, another team leader, of premeditated murder, kidnapping and making a false official statement, but found him guilty of larceny; housebreaking; obstruction of justice; and conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, larceny, housebreaking, obstruction of justice and making a false official statement.

The jury on Aug. 3 sentenced Magincalda to no additional jail time — meaning he would be released that day — but also sentenced him to a reduction in rank to private.

When the verdict was read, Hutchins, standing flanked by his defense attorneys, stared straight ahead, later answering military judge Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks’ procedural question with a loud and clear, “Yes, sir,” according to The Associated Press. His wife bowed her head and sobbed quietly.

The prosecution

For more than a week, prosecutors tried to portray Hutchins, who was on his first combat deployment, as the ringleader in the plot. Several former squad members testified that Hutchins, in assembling the men to review the details of the plan, even asked them if they wanted out.

After grabbing the Iraqi, they bound and dragged him 1,000 meters to a hole in the road and shot him with their weapons. They had set up the scene to make it appear the man was caught digging a hole for a roadside bomb when he got in a firefight with the squad, several squad members testified. Hutchins and Thomas walked up to him and fired their weapons several times at close range, they said.

Lead prosecutor Lt. Col. John Baker, in closing arguments, reminded the court that several squad members testified that Hutchins, hours after the shooting, told them, “Gents, we just got away with murder.”

Richard Brannon, a Georgia-based attorney, said Hutchins and his men were pressured to improvise and push the boundaries of the rules in a command where the platoon commander encouraged chokes and once pointed a weapon at a detainee.

“What are you saying about the squad and what you expect them to do to get the information for the squad?” Brannon said, facing the jury in his closing argument. “That’s still the message you’re sending ... to your men. That’s what is wrong with this case.”

“All of this is a failure of command,” he added.

“These men were led the wrong way, they were put in the wrong place, they were asked to do the wrong things,” Brannon said. “They didn’t mean for it to happen the way it did.”

Brannon described Hutchins’ plan to stop Saleh Gowad, an alleged insurgent financier, as a mission condoned — if not expected — by his superiors, including his platoon commander, 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan.

“They wanted to get him, and the word was: You’d better find a way,” he said. Hutchins “thought it was his job to get rid of Saleh Gowad.”

The Marines, Brannon said, felt pressure from their platoon and company leaders to show results for the numerous patrols and combat operations they did in the region. At one point, the Kilo Company commander brought in another squad to pick up some of their mission, “to make them feel like they were not getting the job done ... they were inferior,” he said.

The sergeant “thought he was doing the right thing,” he added. “He thought he was carrying out what he’s supposed to do.”

Squad members took the stand

The man shot that night by squad members, however, wasn’t Gowad, but another man initially believed to be a 52-year-old retired policeman. But the identity of the victim remains in dispute.

The Marines were angry that Gowad had been captured several times but later released, a cycle that left them frustrated, several squad members testified. Pvt. Tyler A. Jackson testified July 25 that they felt they were “doing the runaround. What we were doing didn’t amount to anything.”

“We were detaining the people,” said Jackson, who is serving a 21-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Their superiors, though, “didn’t think anything was being done with that,” he said.

Pvt. John J. Jodka testified that the men had agreed to stick to the story that the Iraqi man was killed during a firefight and agreed that, if asked, they would “tell the story this was a good shoot.”

Jodka pleaded guilty to charges of assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice and on July 25 completed the terms of his 18-month jail sentence. Under the pretrial agreement with prosecutors, he will be separated from the Corps with a general discharge.

During Magincalda’s trial, a military psychiatrist described the corporal as “a broken shell” and testified that he had developed post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depression as a result of his combat experiences, according to The Associated Press.

On Aug. 2, Magincalda, 24, made an unsworn statement to the court in which he apologized for his actions. “I would like to think I will go on to do good things in my life and can leave a better impression than that which I have right now,” he said, his voice repeatedly breaking and tears welling in his eyes.

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The trials and verdicts