CAMP PENDLETON - Frustration from seeing suspected insurgents arrested then released a short time later and a desire to "send a message" led to the slaying of a retired Iraqi policeman, two Camp Pendleton troops said Tuesday.

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Testifying on the second day of the government's prosecution of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas for murder and related offenses in the shooting of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, the two described in detail the plot they carried out with Thomas and five other men in the village of Hamdania in the early morning hours of April 26, 2006.

They also testified that any of the men who would later be charged with murder had two chances to stop it from happening. They also said they knew the killing was unlawful.

Thomas, six other Marines and corpsman Hospitalman Recruit Melson Bacos were charged in June 2006 with the slaying. Jackson, Bacos and three other Marines from the Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment's squad subsequently reached plea agreements that require they testify against the remaining defendants.

Thomas, 25, was on his third deployment at the time and he and maintains he is innocent because he was following an order from his platoon leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III. Hutchins is a 23-year-old Massachusetts native who was on his first deployment. His trial is slated to start July 23.

Pvt. Tyler Jackson told the nine-member jury that it was Hutchins who announced to the seven men he was leading on a patrol the night of April 25 that he had a plan. If everyone agreed, Jackson said Hutchins told his men, the squad would go to the home of a suspected insurgent named Saleh Gowad, seize and kill him.

The platoon had arrested Gowad several weeks earlier, but learned he had been released from custody.

Once they had Gowad, Jackson said, the plan was to march him to the site of a previous roadside bombing, shoot him and make it appear he had an AK-47 and was planting a bomb.

And executing a man considered an "HVI," or high value individual as the military refers to suspected insurgents, wasn't something that caused much angst that night, Jackson said.

"Killing the number one HVI in the area did not sound like a bad idea to me," he told the three officers and six enlisted men hearing the case against Thomas.

When Gowad wasn't home, the squad decided to go to the home closest to his where they dragged the sleeping Awad from his bed, Jackson said. They marched him out about 1,000 yards, bound his hands and feet, gagged him, then shot him, according to Jackson and Bacos, who also testified Tuesday. They didn't know who Awad was until told by investigators, they said.

Like Jackson, Bacos said the reason the men did not move against the plan was frustration.

"It really made us mad," Bacos said when asked by lead defense attorney Victor Kelley of his reaction to Gowad's arrest. "We did all this work to find terrorists and then they let them go."

Thomas' attorneys say they will call witnesses that will testify that post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from exposures to bomb blasts during his three deployments clouded his judgment.

During opening statements Monday, Maj. Haytham Faraj, one of Thomas' attorneys, said his client honestly believed the plan to kill Gowad or any other Iraqi male the squad could find constituted a lawful order.

Thomas faces a mandatory life prison sentence if two-thirds of the jury finds him guilty of premeditated murder. He also is charged with conspiracy, making a false official statement, larceny and housebreaking.

The trial resumes at 8 a.m. today.

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