CAMP PENDLETON -- A military hearing officer has recommended that a Marine captain accused of failing to probe the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha should not face court-martial, the captain's attorney said Saturday.

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Capt. Randy W. Stone is charged with dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the Nov. 19, 2005, deaths that came in the aftermath of a roadside bomb attack that destroyed a Humvee, killing one Marine and injuring two others.

Charles Gittins, the civilian attorney representing Stone, said Maj. Thomas McCann is recommending dismissal of the criminal charges because the evidence does not support them.

McCann oversaw Stone's Article 32 hearing, which is akin to a preliminary hearing or a grand jury investigation in civilian courts.

Gittins said McCann also suggested that Stone's case be handled administratively, instead of through military criminal courts.

McCann's report is only a recommendation. It will be sent to Lt. Gen. James Mattis, who will make the final decision in the case as head of Marine Corps forces in the Middle East and as commander of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force.

McCann's recommendation comes slightly more than three weeks after the conclusion of Stone's seven-day hearing.

On May 15, near the end of that hearing, Stone in an unsworn statement to McCann, said he attributed the fatalities to combat, and that he never had a reason to believe a war crime had been committed.

"My firm belief -- that there was no law of armed conflict violation -- was the foundation for what actions I did take as well as action I did not take," Stone told McCann.

The 34-year-old native of Dunkirk, Md., was the legal affairs officer for Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment in Iraq at the time of the killings, which took place at the hands of troops from the unit's Kilo Company.

Stone faces more than two years in jail if he is sent to court-martial and convicted.

If his case is handled with an administrative, or nonjudicial, punishment, it would not result in a criminal conviction. Punishments could include having his pay cut in half for two months, 60 days restriction to the base, 30 days home confinement and a formal reprimand.

In closing arguments at the end of the investigative hearing three weeks ago, prosecutor Lt. Col. Paul Atterbury contended Stone needed to be held accountable for failure to investigate a suspected violation of law, a suspicion that didn't arise until several weeks later when a Time magazine reporter said he had reason to believe a massacre had taken place.

Atterbury also argued that Stone needed to serve as a moral compass for the battalion and therefore should have known to conduct at least a preliminary inquiry.

During his closing summation, Stone's attorney, Gittins, argued that none of the testimony showed Stone knew anything beyond the first account given by the Marines who would ultimately face murder charges in the killings. That account indicated that the civilians were "collateral damage" killed during the course of a combat action and no investigation was necessary.

The first civilians to die that day were five men who drove up in a car immediately after the bombing. An additional 19 civilians -- including two women and five children -- died afterward, when the Kilo Company troops stormed three nearby homes because of suspicions the bomb triggerman and other insurgents were inside.

The Marine Corps initially said that 15 civilians died in crossfire and that eight insurgents had been killed.

Despite that first report, when the Marines were charged nine months later, the service said that 24 civilians were killed and did not identify any of the victims as suspected insurgents.

On Monday, an Article 32 gets under way for Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, one of three Marines accused of being triggermen in the slayings.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.