A U.S. Marines soldier was freed Friday after a military jury in California sentenced him to 448 days in prison and lowered his rank to private for his role in a plot to kill an Iraqi civilian last year.
Marshall Magincalda, a Marine corporal, is the second soldier freed without receiving additional prison time after being convicted in the case. He had already served that time while waiting for his trial to begin, according to a Los Angeles Times website report.
The 24-year-old soldier of Manteca, California was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and housebreaking but not premeditated murder.
Corporal Trent Thomas, who was convicted of conspiracy and kidnapping last month, was ordered by the jury to be given a bad- conduct discharge but no further jail time after spending 14 months in the brig awaiting trial.
Meanwhile, a separate jury was deliberating over Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins, the alleged ringleader, who was convicted Thursday and was expected to be sentenced later in the day. All three juries have consisted of combat veterans from Iraq.
The case involved a plot by a Marine squad to kidnap and kill an Iraqi man in April 2006 as a sign to insurgents to stop attacking Marines in the Hamandiya area west of Baghdad.
The soldiers reportedly dragged the Iraqi man from his bed, marching him hundreds of meters and then shooting him 11 times. They told their superiors the man had been killed in a firefight.
The squad was pulled from the battlefield after the slaying was reported, and all its eight members were initially charged with murder and kidnapping. But five of them later reached deals with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony and received sentences ranging from one to eight years in prison.
Magincalda told reporters Friday that he hoped to reenlist and return to Iraq for a fourth tour of duty.
He wept and apologized for the killing in the village of Hamandiya and for not following through on his responsibility as a noncommissioned officer to stop junior Marines from being part of a plot to kill the Iraqi man.
Source: Xinhua
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