Marine Guilty of Iraq Murder Conspiracy
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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.