Marine Guilty of Iraq Murder Conspiracy

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to murder an Iraqi man but was acquitted of premeditated murder and kidnapping in a bungled attempt to kill a suspected insurgent last year.

Corporal Marshall Magincalda also was found guilty of larceny and housebreaking and cleared of making a false official statement. He stood rigidly alongside his two attorneys as sighs and gasps filled the packed courtroom.

A separate jury continued to deliberate in the case of his squad leader, Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins III, who faces the same charges. Prosecutors said that during a nighttime patrol in Hamdania, Iraq, in April 2006, the Marines' squad hatched a plan to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent from his house. When they couldn't find him, they instead kidnapped a man from a neighboring house, dragged him to a hole, and shot him.

Prosecutors said squad members tried to cover up the killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad by putting a shovel and AK–47 by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent planting a bomb.

Magincalda, 24, of Manteca, would have received a mandatory life sentence had he been convicted of premeditated murder. The murder conspiracy count carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, but a squad mate convicted of the same charge last month did not get any prison time from a different military jury.