Marine found guilty in death of Iraq civilian

A Marine Corps squad leader from Plymouth, who his family said was haunted by his tour of duty in Iraq, was convicted yesterday of murdering an Iraqi civilian during a frustrated search for an insurgent.

Sergeant Lawrence G. Hutchins III, 23, faces a maximum punishment of life in prison without parole. He had been charged with premeditated murder, but premeditation was stricken from the verdict that was returned by a military jury at Camp Pendleton in California.

A verdict of premeditated murder would have meant a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Hutchins was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, making a false official statement, and larceny. He was acquitted of kidnapping, assault, and housebreaking.

The verdict stunned friends and family members who had steadfastly maintained he was not capable of committing such a crime.

"No one who knew him believed he could ever do the things they said he did," said Mary Hale, a neighbor who has known Hutchins since he was a small boy. "You just can't picture it. It's just impossible for us to believe."

Friends and relatives said the portrait of Hutchins painted by prosecutors -- as a ringleader who allegedly told his men, "We just got away with murder" -- was completely unlike the devoted son who left for Iraq. They say the war changed him and gave him nightmares.

Hale described Hutchins, whose father and grandfather served in the Marine Corps, as an honest, kind person who was never prouder than when he joined the Marines.

"I just can't tell you how devastated we are," she said in a telephone interview, shortly after learning of the verdict. "It just feels so wrong. I hope it doesn't ruin his life completely."

Hutchins, who graduated from Plymouth South High School in 2002, has a wife, Reyna Griffin, and 2-year-old daughter, Kylie.

Hutchins's aunt, Patricia Riddell of Quincy, said she was "sad and devastated" by the verdict. She said the family was heartened when another member of his squad, Corporal Trent Thomas, was acquitted of murder, and believed the jury would find Hutchins innocent as well.

"It doesn't seem fair," she said in a telephone interview.

Gerald Kirby, a Quincy lawyer who directs the Military Combat Defense Fund, which helped Hutchins's family raise money for his defense, said the family had never doubted that he would be acquitted.

"They will be devastated," he said. "They had great faith in their son, and had tremendous faith in his innocence."

Tom Bolinder, also a defense fund board member, said he was bitterly disappointed in the verdict.

"A jury has spoken and we have to accept that, but I feel this is a tragedy," said Bolinder, who lives in Hanson. "This is war we're talking about, and certain things happen that require certain actions. To be prosecuted for murder, that's just wrong."

Bolinder said the fund would try to finance an appeal of the verdict and said he hoped the military would be merciful in sentencing.

The jury began hearing testimony from his relatives yesterday and could begin deliberating his sentence today.

In an interview with the Globe last month from jail in Camp Pendleton, Hutchins denied the charges and said he was confident he would be acquitted. He had spent four months in Iraq before the April 2006 slaying, searching for insurgents west of Baghdad.

Prosecutors said that during a nighttime patrol in Hamdania, Iraq, Hutchins's squad hatched a plan to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent from his house. When they couldn't find him, they kidnapped a man from a neighboring house, marched him to a ditch, shot him, and put an AK-47 and shovel nearby to make him look like an insurgent planting a bomb.

A military prosecutor said Hutchins fired three shots into the victim's head, then told his squad "Gents, we just got away with murder."

Hutchins's lawyers contended he participated in the plot because his officers had set a poor leadership example and given approval for Marines to use violence in capturing and interrogating suspected insurgents.

In another base courtroom, a squad member was being sentenced for conspiracy and lesser crimes. Corporal Marshall Magincalda, 24, of Manteca, Calif., was acquitted of premeditated murder and kidnapping. He also faced up to life in prison.

Magincalda was not accused of firing any shots, but was charged with murder for participating in the plot.

All eight members of the squad were initially charged with murder and kidnapping. Four lower-ranking Marines and a Navy corpsman cut deals with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony and received sentences ranging from one to eight years in prison. Last month a jury acquitted another corporal of murder but convicted him of conspiracy to commit murder and kidnapping.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com.