A military jury at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base sentenced Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III to 15 years in prison for the murder of an Iraqi grandfather. Hutchins, a U.S. Marine squad leader, had bragged to his colleagues that he had “got away with murder.”
Hutchins was charged with unpremeditated murder, larceny and other crimes, along with receiving a reprimand and dishonorable discharge.
When the verdict was read his wife and mother sobbed; Hutchins’s face conveyed no emotion or guilt. He lowered his head to the table once.
The former U.S. Marine leader is the father of a 2-year-old daughter was also in the courtroom. He was allowed to spend a short period of time with his family before he was transported to a military brig.
The sentence related to an April 2006 incident in which seven Marines and a Navy medic captured and shot 52 year old Hashim Ibrahim, a father of eleven and grandfather of four. Ibrahim was captured in the dead of night when the Marines could not find his neighbor who was a terrorism suspect.
According to witnesses, the gang of armed men planted an AK-47 and a shovel next to his corpse to make it appear as though he had been planting a road side bomb.
Hutchins applauded his men saying, “We just got away with murder.”
Hutchins convictions makes him the eight person to be sentenced in relation to the crime. He was the only one convicted of murder.
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