FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A soldier accused of ordering subordinates to kill three Iraqi detainees should be sentenced to 10 years in prison, a military jury decided yesterday.

Staff Sergeant Ray Girouard, who was found guilty Friday of negligent homicide in his court-martial, could have received up to 21 years in prison. He avoided a life sentence when he was found not guilty of premeditated murder.

Girouard was also found guilty of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators, of conspiracy for trying to conceal the crime, and of failure to obey a general order.

He was accused of telling his soldiers to release detainees they captured during the May 9 raid near Samarra, Iraq, and then shoot them as they fled. He is the last and most senior soldier from the 101st Airborne Division to face trial in the killings.

The panel also recommended a reduction in his rank, a dishonorable discharge, and forfeiture of pay, with a recommendation that the money go to his wife and 4-year-old son.

Girouard showed no emotion during the reading of the sentence, but afterward, he hugged his attorney. His family filed out of the courtroom without speaking to him. The commanding general of the 101st Airborne Division must review the sentence before it takes effect, but it is unclear how long that will take. Girouard also gets an automatic appeal of the sentence.

Girouard said yesterday that he knew he made a mistake in lying about the killings.

“I made a bad decision, and I fully accept my responsibility,” Girouard said.

He testified during the trial that he lied to investigators about the slayings to protect his soldiers and that he never told two of his soldiers, Specialist William Hunsaker and Private First Class Corey Clagett, to kill the detainees captured during a raid on an insurgent camp.

Hunsaker and Clagett testified that Girouard ordered them to shoot the prisoners, while another soldier, Specialist Juston Graber, testified that the soldiers were given an option to participate in the plan to kill the detainees. All three have pleaded guilty to other charges.

Prosecutors had asked jurors to return the maximum sentence, saying Girouard had damaged the Army’s image and became the poster child for war crimes in Iraq.

Girouard “has obliterated the good deeds of every other soldier that follows him,” Captain William Fischbach said, adding, “He wants you to think he’s a good soldier, a Christian, a hero. He’s none of the above.”