CAMP PENDLETON -- Three Marines charged with murdering an Iraqi man have been ordered to face courts-martial, Camp Pendleton officials announced Monday morning.

Special Report

Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commanding general of Marine Corps Forces, ordered Pfc. John Jodka III of Encinitas stand trial for his role in the alleged conspiracy, kidnapping and killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the village of Hamdania on April 26.

Mattis also ordered courts-martial proceedings for Cpl. Marshall Magincalda and Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate on charges of premeditated murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, larceny and housebreaking.

In making the announcement, the Marine Corps said Mattis had dismissed charges of making a false statement, larceny and impeding an investigation also lodged against Jodka when the men were charged on June 21.

Mattis also dismissed charges of assault and impeding the investigation against Shumate and Magincalda.

The three men are among seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged in the case. Their cases will be prosecuted as non-capital punishment crimes, meaning they will not face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of premeditated murder.

In its announcement, the Marine Corps said the decision to proceed to trial was "based on Lt. Gen. Mattis' evaluation of each individual case."

The men are presumed innocent and will have a chance to enter a formal plea to the charges when arraigned. No date for their arraignments has been set.

Jodka's lead attorney, Joseph Casas, said he wasn't surprised by the announcement his 20-year-old client will now stand trial.

"We are in the process of digesting the charges that made it to court-martial," Casas said. "We are pleased that Gen. Mattis took the investigating officer's recommendations that they dismiss some of the charges.

"We are looking forward to the day that Pfc. Jodka has a chance to have a fair trial and proclaim his innocence."

Mattis also announced Monday that an assault charge against Lance. Cpt. Henry D. Lever has been dismissed. Lever and five other marines were accused of assaulting Iraqis in Hamdania on April 10.

The platoon's second lieutenant, 2nd Lt. Nathan Phan, has been scheduled for an Article 32 hearing on Oct. 25, and no decisions have been announced reegarding the fate of four other Marines accused in that case.

The next pretrial hearing in the case is set for Wednesday, when the court session for a U.S. Navy petty officer gets under way at Camp Pendleton.

Hospitalman 3rd Class Melson Bacos is alleged to have helped drag Awad from his home and aided in the binding of his hands and feet and marching him to where he was killed.

Bacos, 21, also is accused of stealing an AK-47 assault rifle and a shovel allegedly used to stage the scene to make it appear Awad was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb, and marching the 52-year-old man to the site where he was killed.

After Awad was shot, Bacos is alleged to have fired rounds from the AK-47 into the air so that spent shell casings would be found near the man's body to make it appear he had fired at the squad.

Like all the men from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Bacos is charged with premeditated murder, conspiracy, larceny, assault and housebreaking.

The Article 32 hearings for Jodka, Magincalda and Shumate took place in August and earlier this month

In each case, those men's lead defense attorneys did not call any witnesses and agreed to let the hearing officer presiding over the sessions use Naval Criminal Investigative Service reports as the basis on which to recommend whether the men should move forward to courts-martial.

Bacos' attorney Jeremiah Sullivan III of San Diego has maintained his client is innocent. He did not return telephone calls Monday seeking to determine if he will take the same course as other defense attorneys have thus far.

A native of the Milwaukee area, Bacos is married to a Navy corpsman and has a daughter, born in April 2005.

On a Web site established by his wife to help raise money for his defense, www.patriotdefensefund.com, she wrote that her husband was on his second deployment to Iraq when the incident in Hamdania took place.

During his first tour in Iraq, 19 Marines from his battalion lost their lives, including nine from his company, two of whom died in his arms, she wrote.

The son of Filipino immigrants, Bacos joined the Navy right after graduating from Franklin High School in Franklin, Wis.

On a Myspace.com Web site listing under his name, Bacos wrote: "I've seen it all in combat and now I'm at it again. I live for my family and their future."

Wednesday's hearing will be presided over by Marine Col. Paul Pugliese, base officials announced. Pugliese is a Marine reservist who also works for the U.S. attorney's office in Reno, Nev.

More than two dozen Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents have been involved in the Hamdania investigation, spending more than 7,000 hours on the case conducting more than 100 interviews, according to agency officials.

Despite assertions from defense attorneys and the accused men's family members, agency officials say privately that their investigation clearly demonstrated a squad out of control that conspired to kidnap and kill Awad after he would not provide members with information about insurgent activity in the area.

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com. Staff writer Teri Figueroa contributed to this report.