Marine Is Guilty of Conspiracy To Murder

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Aug. 1 -- A Marine was found guilty Wednesday 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.

Cpl. Marshall L. Magincalda also was found guilty of larceny and housebreaking. He was cleared of making a false official statement. Magincalda 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, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, who faces the same charges.

Prosecutors said that during a nighttime patrol in Hamdaniya, Iraq, in April 2006, the Marines' squad hatched a plan to kidnap a suspected insurgent from his house and kill him. When they could not 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 planting a shovel and an AK-47 by his body to make it look as though he was an insurgent planting a bomb.

Magincalda, 24, of Manteca, Calif., 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 squadmate convicted of the same charge last month did not get any prison time from a different military jury.