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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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July 23rd,
2007 - Trial Underway for Hamdania Marine |
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Trial Underway for Hamdania
Marine By Mark Walker North County Times July 23, 2007 11:57 AM PDT Camp Pendleton - A Marine
corporal was described Monday as a reluctant participant in the April 2006
abduction and shooting death of an Iraqi civilian, an incident that led to
charges of murder and kidnapping for he and several other Marines. Attorney Joseph Low told a
six-member military jury that Cpl. Marshall Magincalda was hesitant about the
plan that led to the killing of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the spring
of 2006. Magincalda's military trial began on Camp Pendleton Monday morning. A veteran of three Iraq
deployments, Low said Magincalda refused to take part in the shooting of the
retired Iraqi policeman but acknowledged the 24-year-old native of Manteca,
Calif., did help stage the killing scene to make it appear that Awad was an
insurgent. "He said 'I ain't gonna
do it,'" Low said of Magincalda's refusal to take part in the actual
shooting of the Iraqi. But the prosecutor, Maj.
Donald Plowman, told the panel members that Magincalda played a key role in
planning the killing and took part in virtually all of its elements,
including attempts to cover it up when confronted by investigators after the
slain man's family complained to military authorities. "He helped kill this
man and then he lied about it," Plowman said during the prosecution's
opening statement in Magincalda's hearing, which was conducted inside a small
base courtroom. "Justice will demand you find the accused guilty of all
the charges." Magincalda is the second man
from the Kilo Company 1st squad, 2nd platoon from Camp Pendleton's 3rd
Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment to take his case to trial. Five other men, four Marines
and a Navy medical corpsman, struck plea deals and received sentences ranging
from one to eight years behind bars. A sixth defendant, Cpl.
Trent Thomas, was found guilty by a military jury last week of conspiracy to
commit murder and related offenses. Though prosecutors asked for a sentence
of 15 years in a military prison, the jury instead gave Thomas a bad conduct
discharge and reduction in rank. Like his squad mates,
Magincalda is charged with murder, conspiracy, kidnapping, housebreaking,
larceny and making a false official statement for the incident that took
place in the village of Hamdania northwest of Baghdad. He faces a possible
life prison sentence if convicted of murder. The holder of a Purple Heart
for a wound he suffered during a 2004 battle in Fallujah, Magincalda is
accused of distributing spent shell casings from a stolen AK-47 rifle around
Awad's body in the early morning hours of April 26 to make it appear he had
fired at the troops. Magincalda's trial is
expected to last through the middle of next week. On Tuesday, jury selection
begins in another base courtroom for the squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence
Hutchins. See Tuesday's North County
Times for more on the start of the Magincalda trial. External link: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/23/news/top_stories/72207182803.txt |