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A US military judge has sentenced a US Marine to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty to murdering an Iraqi in the city of Hamdania last year.
Lance Corporal Robert Pennington, 22, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to being an accessory to the murder, in which a total of eight members of the US military have faced various charges.
The sentence was announced by Judge Steven Folsom, at the largest US Marine base in the world located south of Los Angeles.
Pennington also received a suspended sentence of six years in jail, was reduced in rank and will be discharged from the military after he finishes serving his sentence.
Pennington, who had initially faced the death penalty, became the fifth US serviceman to admit involvement in the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania outside Baghdad on April 26, 2006.
The convict's father, Terry Pennington, said the family was “in shock since we got the first phone call from our son in late May — he was in California, not Iraq as we thought.”
“This is really a punishment for our family as well,” added the mother, Deanna. “I wish Bobby could come home. I'll be serving that sentence with him.”
Civilian defense attorney David Brahms called Pennington “a fine young Marine scarred from his experiences in Fallujah.”
Prosecutors say seven Marines and a Navy medic kidnapped Awad from his home and killed him before staging a cover-up to make it look as if the 52-year-old grandfather was an insurgent.
Four other servicemen have already pleaded guilty to charges relating to the case and been given custodial sentences ranging from 12 to 21 months.
Meanwhile, murder and kidnapping charges against another Marine, Trent Thomas, were refiled on Monday after he withdrew guilty pleas last week during a sentencing hearing.
Two other Marines, squad leader Sergeant Lawrence Hutchins and Marshall Magincalda are also charged in connection with Awad's death.
Lawyers for Thomas told a sentencing hearing here earlier this month that their client had been “acting under the color of authority” when Awad was killed.
“He executed what he was told to execute,” Defense attorney Dale Saran told military judge Lieutenant Colonel Tracy Daly.
After a recess, Daly granted the 11th hour plea-change, but warned Thomas he could potentially face the death penalty if convicted.
Daly said the original charges against Thomas would be reinstated, including premeditated murder.
Daly added that Thomas already admitted that he knew he acted illegally during testimony earlier in the case.
Thomas had initially pleaded not guilty but changed his plea last month as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Defense lawyers said Thomas had been determined to fight the murder charges all along and had been torn by his decision to plead guilty last month.
It is not clear when Thomas will now stand trial to fight the charges.
The killing is one of a string of incidents that has tarnished the reputation of US forces in Iraq.
Prosecutors say Awad was killed after the squad of soldiers failed to locate a suspected insurgent operating in the area west of Baghdad.
Awad was allegedly taken from his home and frog-marched to a hole, which Marines had dug to look like a roadside bomb crater.
He was then bound before being shot three times in the head. An AK-47 rifle was left beside his body to create the impression he had been an insurgent planting a bomb.
During testimony in Thomas' sentencing hearing, a Navy medic told the court how the Marines squad leader, Lawrence Hutchins, had congratulated his men for “getting away with murder” after Awad was shot dead.
“When all was cleaned up, Hutchins said, 'Congratulations. We just got away with murder, gents,'” Bacos said.
Hutchins is due to stand trial for murder on March 19.
