Hamdaniya trial begins; prosecution slams cpl. - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Hamdaniya trial begins; prosecution slams cpl.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — A Marine corporal from Illinois played a key role in the kidnapping and shooting death of an Iraqi man and should be convicted of murder, a military prosecutor said Monday.

Prosecutor Lt. Col. John Baker’s opening statement came at a court-martial for Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, a 25-year-old infantryman from Madison, Ill. who belonged to an eight-man squad involved in the death.

“I will prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that Corporal Thomas is a murderer,” Baker said. “This is an old-fashioned, premeditated, conspiracy to kill.”

The court-martial is the first trial among seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged in last year’s slaying of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Anbar province. Thomas will be judged by a panel of three officers and six enlisted Marines.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Maj. Haytham Faraj said Thomas was only following orders the night of April 25, 2006. He said Thomas’ judgment was affected after he suffered brain injuries in explosions on an earlier combat tour.

“Under the circumstances, Corporal Thomas had no choice but to do what he did,” Faraj said.

Thomas, 25, pleaded guilty in January as part of a pretrial agreement. But on the eve of his sentencing, having already given details of his involvement in the killing, he withdrew his plea.

Thomas’ attorneys said at the time that their client had an “epiphany” before he changed his plea to not guilty. Thomas claimed he had been following what he perceived to be a lawful order from the squad’s leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III.

According to prosecutors, during a nighttime patrol, the men participated in a plan to go to the house of a suspected insurgent, kidnap him and kill him. When they couldn’t get to the intended victim, they instead snatched Awad, a father of 11, from a nearby house.

Prosecutors say Thomas, the senior corporal in the squad and a fireteam leader, led a four-man snatch team to take Awad from his home.

The Marine did not speak during Monday’s proceeding. His mother and wife were in the courtroom.

Four Marines and the corpsman already have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and sentenced to between one and eight years in the brig. The sailor, Melson Bacos, was sentenced to a year in military prison and released two months early.

Those troops testified that several squad members took Awad to a ditch then shot him to death. In an attempt to cover up the killing, they said they placed a shovel and AK-47 by his body to make it look like he was an insurgent who was digging a hole to plant a bomb.

The men who pleaded guilty have pointed to squad leader Hutchins as the mastermind, though each acknowledged being complicit in the plan.

Hutchins’ court-martial is expected to start later this month. The sergeant’s attorney, Rich Brannon, who was watching court proceedings Monday, said he believed his client was innocent.

If convicted of murder, Thomas faces a mandatory life sentence.

In addition to murder and kidnapping, Thomas, a St. Louis-area native, is charged with conspiracy, making a false official statement, larceny and housebreaking. If he is found not guilty of murder but guilty of any of the other charges, the jury will decide his sentence.

The court-martial is expected to last two weeks.

Charges against the Marine squad came as another Camp Pendleton unit was under investigation in the killing of 24 civilians in Haditha. Three Marines have been charged with murder in that case and four officers charged with failing to investigate those deaths.

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Hamdaniya trials

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