CAMP PENDLETON -- A Marine lance corporal testified Thursday morning that he never saw his squad leader kill any Iraqis inside two homes that were assaulted by a group of Camp Pendleton Marines in Haditha in 2005 after a roadside bombing.

Lance Cpl. Humberto Mendoza told a packed base courtroom that the homes were stormed on the heels of a roadside bombing that killed one Marine and injured two others.

Mendoza was the first to testify at a hearing for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, who is accused of murdering 17 of 24 Iraqi civilians slain after the bombing. An 18th count of murder against the 27-year-old Connecticut native for the slaying of one of four brothers killed inside another house was dropped, prosecutors announced at the start of the hearing.

Mendoza, who was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony, said he shot two men during the assault, including one Iraqi man whom he said Wuterich ordered him to kill.

"Wait until I open the door and shoot," Mendoza quoted Wuterich as saying.

Wuterich has told investigators he was taking small-arms fire from a house near the explosion and ordered his troops to consider anyone inside as an enemy.

"I told them to shoot first, ask questions later," he told authorities last year.

Mendoza testified that he had identified several women and children inside a bedroom of the second house and told a fellow Marine they posed no threat.

But that Marine, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum, ordered the then Pvt. Mendoza to kill them, he testified. When he refused the order, Mendoza said Tatum went inside the room and that he soon heard noises and learned later that everyone had been killed.

Wuterich was leading a squad of Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment on a resupply and mail run mission when the bomb exploded about 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2005.

A short time later, a support force including Kilo Company platoon commander 1st Lt. William Kallop, who has testified in a previous hearing that he ordered Wuterich and his men to "clear" houses near the site of the bombing.

That part of the events at Haditha came after five men who emerged from a car moments after the bombing were shot and killed, resulting in five of the now 17 murder charges against Wuterich.

Mendoza testified only that he saw Wuterich shooting at the car but did not specifically say he saw him shoot any of those men.

Wuterich's attorneys maintain a forensic reconstruction of the scene of the car killings will exonerate their client and that the Iraqis killed inside their homes died as he and his squad members were carrying out a legitimate combat action in response to being attacked.

The hearing began with the tattooed Wuterich answering some perfunctory questions posed by the investigating officer, Lt. Col. Paul Ware. He is the same hearing officer who recommended earlier this summer that charges against two of Wuterich's co-defendants be dropped.

The convening authority over the case, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, concurred with Ware's recommendation in the government's case against Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt. Last week, Ware also recommended murder charges against Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum be dropped, a recommendation Mattis has to rule upon.

In his recommendation in the Tatum case, Ware wrote that he did not find Mendoza's testimony credible, basing that determination in part on varying versions of events the lance corporal has given investigators.

The Haditha killings resulted in murder charges against four enlisted men and charges of dereliction of duty against four officers. One of the enlisted men, Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, later had the charges against him dropped in exchange for his testimony.

The four officers were charged with dereliction of duty for allegedly failing to fully investigate the incident. Charges against one of those officers, Capt. Randy Stone, have been dropped while hearings for two others are pending.

An investigatining officer has recommended that the case of the battalion commander at Haditha, Col. Jeffrey Chessani, go to trial by court-martial. Mattis has not yet ruled on that recommendation.

Wuterich's hearing was recessed at noon and scheduled to resume in mid-afternoon. Shortly before it did, Maj. Haytham Faraj, one of Wuterich's attorneys, asked Mendoza his opinion of the man who led him at Haditha.

"I think he is a great Marine," Mendoza responded.

See Friday's North County Times for a full report.

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