Trials ordered for 3 Marines in Iraqi’s death
All on the insane basis of  the word of Islamic terrorism supporters

Since 09-26-06

By Gidget Fuentes

Staff writer

http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2129257.php

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Three Marine infantrymen will be tried on charges that they deliberately shot and killed an Iraqi man in April, Marine Corps officials said Monday.

The decision by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who heads Marine Corps Forces-Central Command, means that Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda, Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr. and Pfc. John J. Jodka III will be tried at general courts-martial, but none will face the death penalty if convicted of murder, officials said.

They are among seven leathernecks and a Navy corpsman with Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, charged in the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdaniya, Iraq.

Magincalda faces charges of murder, conspiracy, larceny, housebreaking, wrongfully seizing and holding the victim and making a false official statement. Mattis dismissed charges of assault and impeding an investigation.

Shumate faces charges of murder, conspiracy, larceny, housebreaking and wrongfully seizing and holding the victim. Mattis also dismissed charges of assault and impeding an investigation in his case.

Jodka faces charges of murder, conspiracy, assault, housebreaking and wrongfully seizing and holding the victim. Mattis dismissed charges of larceny, making a false official statement and impeding an investigation.

No dates for the courts-martial have been set, officials said.

Defense attorneys for the three Marines wanted to go directly to court-martial but were unsuccessful in getting the preliminary Article 32 hearings waived. “There’s no surprise that charges were referred, and we’re reviewing them,” San Diego attorney Joseph Casas, one of Jodka’s defense lawyers, said Monday.

Preliminary hearings for three other members of 3/5 charged in Awad’s death are pending. The case against Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos will be heard Wednesday at Camp Pendleton.

In an unrelated case, officials said that Mattis dismissed an assault charge against another 3/5 Marine, Lance Cpl. Henry D. Lever, who was accused of beating another Iraqi, Khalid Hamad Daham, in a separate incident in Hamdaniya. It was the only charge against Lever.