Hamdania squad leader due in court next week

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:50 PM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- Attorneys for a Marine sergeant who allegedly led the abduction and slaying of an Iraqi civilian last year are attempting to prevent prosecutors from introducing incriminating statements by other defendants during their client's upcoming court-martial.

Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III is due in a Camp Pendleton courtroom Monday and Tuesday for motion hearings in advance of his scheduled April trial.

Hutchins is accused of murder and six other felonies in the April 26, 2006, death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad. Five of the men he led have entered guilty pleas and said the crime was carried out under Hutchins' direction.

Hutchins' lead attorney, Rich Brannon, said the defense also will ask the judge to approve a second trip to Iraq for attorneys.

A 10-day trip last month to the village of Hamdania, in Anbar province where the killing took place, did not provide sufficient time or access to witnesses, Brannon said.

"We were hampered in that we couldn't get a lot of things we wanted to do accomplished because of security concerns," Brannon said this week during a telephone interview from his office in Gainesville, Ga.

Hutchins' attorneys and those for another of the three remaining defendants, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, were able to visit Hamdania, talk to a few residents and see the site where Awad was killed.

But the five-member group, escorted by troops from Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, was not able to interview relatives of the 52-year-old slain Iraqi, a retired policeman who prosecutors have repeatedly said had no known ties to insurgent activity.

Despite not being able to talk to any Awad family members, Brannon said he believes the trip will give him credibility with the military jury that will hear his client's case, which is set for a two-week trial starting April 23 but could be moved to later in the year.

"I can at least tell the jury that I have been there and I have spent time with the Marines on the ground in Iraq," said Brannon, who served in the Marine Corps in the 1980s.

Hutchins faces up to life in prison if convicted. The five men who have pleaded guilty have been sentenced to terms ranging from 12 months to eight years behind bars.

The slaying, according to statements in court from those who have pleaded guilty, was carried out to "send a message" to Hamdania residents that the troops were not going to tolerate further attacks that had seen some of their fellow Marines killed and injured.

Brannon maintains his client is not guilty. Despite the statements from the men who have pleaded guilty, he said he does not believe the full story of what happened has yet been aired.

Platoon members have said that their intended target was a known insurgent believed responsible for numerous roadside bombings. Brannon contends that was the man that Hutchins believed his squad had taken from a home, bound and placed along a road to be shot.

Hutchins was among the shooters and performed a "dead check" after the initial round of shooting in which he fired three rounds into the man's head, according those who pleaded guilty.

Brannon also hinted that he will raise issues that Marines in Anbar confront almost daily.

"You cannot imagine what five or six months over there does to a human being when you are placed in a situation where you can be killed by anyone you see at almost any time," he said.

None of the men charged in the case have yet gone to trial. Each has been offered a plea deal with the convening authority over the case, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, including Hutchins.

"It was nowhere near acceptable," Brannon said of the offer his client got, declining to outline its specific terms. "It represented serious jail time."

Besides Hutchins and Magincalda, the remaining defendant is Cpl. Trent Thomas.

Earlier this month, Thomas withdrew six guilty pleas he had entered on Jan. 18. That move came on the third day of his sentencing hearing and resulted, he said, from a realization that he now believes he was "acting under the color of law" in carrying out a direct order he said Hutchins had issued.

The first man to plead guilty in the case, Navy Corpsman Melson Bacos, testified during the Thomas hearing that Hutchins told the squad immediately after the killing: "Congratulations, gents. We just got away with murder."

Brannon declined to comment on statements by Thomas and Bacos.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.

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