8 U.S. troops charged with murder

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Seven U.S. Marines and a Navy corpsman were charged with murder Wednesday in the April killing of an Iraqi civilian near the town of Hamdaniya, Col. Stewart Navarre said at Camp Pendleton, California.

All eight also face charges of kidnapping, conspiracy, larceny, assault and housebreaking, or unlawfully entering a dwelling. Five of the men also are accused of making a false official statement, according to information released to the media.

Navarre declined to list specific counts against each man. (Watch recounting of incident by victim's brother -- 2:40)

The eight -- members of the Pendleton-based 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment -- were taken out of Iraq and detained at the base after accusations that they killed Hasham Ibrahim Awad, 54, a disabled veteran of Iraq's war with Iran in the 1980s.

The troops, all assigned to Kilo Company, allegedly removed Awad from his home and shot him to death.

Navarre, chief of staff for Marine Corps bases west of the Mississippi River, said the men were charged after Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, senior commander at Pendleton, reviewed the findings of a criminal inquiry by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Charging document gives account

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the charging document, which gives the following account:

The troops were staking out an intersection looking for people placing explosives along the road. When no one came, Magincalda, Thomas, Pennington and Bacos stole a shovel and an AK-47 from a nearby home and went looking for an insurgent named Saleh Gowad.

They couldn't find Gowad, so they went into a house belonging to Awad and kidnapped him. Magincalda, Thomas, Pennington and Bacos forced Awad to the ground, tied his feet and took him to their hideout and placed him in a hole.

Hutchins, Thomas and Shumate fired M-16 rifles at Awad while Jackson and Jodka fired M-249 automatic weapons, killing him.

Bacos then fired the AK-47 into the air to expend some shell casings. Magincalda collected the casings and put them by the body, the document said. Pennington cleaned prints off the AK-47 and put it in Awad's hands.

Hutchins, the top-ranking Marine, told his men to make false statements and on April 28 submitted "a false written report regarding the factors and circumstances related to Awad's death," according to the document.

Article 32 proceedings

Sattler will decide whether and how to proceed with preliminary hearings known in the military as Article 32 proceedings, the equivalent of a civilian grand jury, Navarre said. Those in turn could lead to courts-martial for some or all of the men.

If premeditated murder charges are referred, Sattler would determine whether the accused soldiers could face the death penalty, Navarre said.

The charges were filed Wednesday morning, and each man has retained civilian counsel, Navarre said. Key members of Congress were briefed Wednesday on the specifics of the charges, he said.

"It is important to note that the charges and specifications are accusations against the individual, and the accused is presumed innocent," he said.

Four additional Marines also had been sent to Pendleton and placed on pretrial restriction. They have been released, Navarre said. "I cannot discuss those Marines further as the matter is still under investigation," he said.

The other eight are under "medium confinement," which allows them to move about the detention facility without constraints, Navarre said.

"The Marine Corps takes allegations of wrongdoing by its members very seriously and is committed to thoroughly investigating such allegations," Navarre told reporters.

Father of accused 'incredulous'

Phil Jackson, the father of accused 22-year-old Lance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, told CNN he watched Navarre's news conference on television.

"I'm shocked. Incredulous. These guys are innocent. These Marines are innocent until proven guilty, as the U.S. Marine Corps said today. I certainly hope and believe that the Marines will adhere to that in their investigation," the father said in a statement.

"Let's not assume until the process runs its course. It is only now that the alleged evidence will become available to the military and private counsels involved," said Jackson, who lives in Tracy, California.

Maj. Haythan Faraj, a lawyer for Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, told The Associated Press that at least some of the information given by the troops "was coerced out of them" by investigators.

David Brahms, a lawyer for Lance Cpl. Robert B. Pennington, told Reuters, "It's preposterous to suggest that eight Marines got together to plan a murder."

Family's allegations

Awad's family told CNN the Marines were pressuring him to act as an informer, hoping to learn who was planting roadside bombs and carrying out other attacks around Hamdaniya, on Baghdad's western outskirts.

The Americans carried Awad from his home to the main road through town, said his brother, Sadoon.

Police turned over Awad's body to relatives the next day, along with an assault rifle and shovel his family says were planted to make him look like an insurgent.

U.S. troops offered $2,000 in compensation for his brother's death, then $10,000, said Sadoon Awad. He said he considered the offers an attempt to buy his family's silence.

"But I refused," he told CNN. "I told them, 'I don't need money.' I told them, 'The truth is that you took my brother, you tortured him, and you killed him, although he was disabled and old.' "

Iraqi officials brought the allegation to Marine commanders at a May 1 meeting, prompting the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, to call for an investigation.

Some Marines have admitted the circumstances of the man's death were staged, a military officer with direct knowledge of the Navy's preliminary findings told CNN earlier this month.

Investigators recently returned Awad's body after exhuming it and taking it to the United States for tests, his brother said. He said he expects to attend the trial, but did not know whether he would be called as a witness.

Meanwhile, defense lawyers have decried information leaks from the probe, while their clients are being held in pretrial confinement.

Fourth soldier charged

The incident is unrelated to a criminal investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in the Anbar province town of Haditha in November.

Investigations into both incidents spurred the commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Mike Hagee, to lecture Marines on what he called "the American way of war" during a trip to Iraq in early June.

Separately, a fourth soldier from the 101st Airborne Division was charged Wednesday in connection with the shooting deaths of three detainees during an operation in Salaheddin province in May, the military said.

Spc. Juston R. Graber, 20, was charged with premeditated murder, attempted premeditated murder, conspiracy to commit murder and making a false official statement, according to a written statement. (Full story)

The military announced Monday that an Army sergeant and two other soldiers had been charged in the case.

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