CAMP PENDLETON -- The first Marine convicted of murdering an Iraqi in the war zone since the U.S. invasion sunk into his chair and put his head on the table Friday afternoon after he learned his fate: 15 years in prison.

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The punishment was a punch in the gut to Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins, as well as an about face from decisions made by other juries, who convicted his accused squad mates on lesser charges and set them free.

Hutchins was the leader of the squad whose members admitted they kidnapped and killed an Iraqi man. He was also the highest-ranking Marine among the accused, and according to testimony, he was the chief architect of a killing plot crafted in a palm grove during an overnight patrol.

"I felt all along that fingers would be pointed at my client," Hutchins' attorney Rich Brannon said after the verdict. "He was what you would call the lead defendant. I felt like the other defendants had a better chance."

Hutchins' jury, made up of combat veterans, also sentenced the squad leader to a reduction in rank to private, a dishonorable discharge and a reprimand for his role as the mastermind in a plot that left an Iraqi man shot to death in Hamdania on April 26, 2006.

Brannon said he would ask Lt. Gen. James Mattis to review the sentence. As head of all Marine Corps forces in the Middle East, Mattis is the convening authority over the Hamdania cases.

Although there will be automatic appeals and a plea for relief, the jury's decision drops the curtain on much of the saga for eight Camp Pendleton squad members who became known as the Pendleton Eight last summer. All were charged with murder in June 2006 for their roles in the killing.

The sentence came as the military base is dealing with criminal charges brought in another case, in which another squad of men is accused of wrongfully killing 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha.

In the Hamdania case, Hutchins' No. 2 and No. 3 men were acquitted of murder, but found guilty of conspiracy and sentenced to time served. That amounted to less than 15 months each.

'The disparity is a lot'

As the jury foreman announced the punishment, the sergeant's wife, Reyna Hutchins, put her head to her knees. She sobbed inconsolably as she sat in the audience behind her husband throughout the rest of the short hearing, while the couple's nearly 3-year-old daughter quietly sang to herself. Hutchins' mother slumped over onto the shoulder of Hutchins' father.

As the family left the courtroom, Hutchins put his arm around his wife, kissed her hard on the side of the face and whispered in her ear.

"The family is really, really hurt," Brannon said. "They feel like the disparity (with the sentences for his squad mates) is a lot."

A few hours before Hutchins learned his fate, his squad mate Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, who was acquitted of murder but convicted of conspiracy in the plot, listened as a jury told him he would be walking free.

Two weeks ago, release from the brig was also part of the same sentence handed down to now Pvt. Trent Thomas -- he was also busted down from corporal and will be given a bad-conduct discharge.

The remainder of the squad, all of whom were charged with murder, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and testified against their accused squad mates from Kilo Company in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

Their testimony was the meat of the government's cases.

According to them, Hutchins' plan targeted a highly suspected insurgent said to be behind roadside bombings and other attacks on troops in the rural area of Hamdania, outside of Baghdad.

When they couldn't reach him, they snatched and killed his neighbor, then reported they had killed him in a firefight.

The squad members who testified said the point of the killing was to send a message to insurgents that roadside bombs and attacks on troops would not be tolerated in the area.

And in asking the jury to sentence Hutchins to 30-years in prison, prosecutor Capt. Nicholas Gannon asked the panel of Iraq war veterans to "send a message" to other Marines to "communicate what lawless vigilantism will bring."

"You have to communicate with a sentence that is severe enough that the moment of truth, right before something really bad happens, somebody has the fortitude to stand up and say no," Gannon said. "The ramifications of what you do here today, it will become very clear that, while difficult, while challenging, it is necessary."

It took the jury of five officers and four enlisted men about three hours to settle on Hutchins' sentence. Convicting of him of murder took two days.

'A tragic mistake'

The testimony from the junior Marines and a corpsman at the courts-martial for Hutchins, Magincalda and Thomas shined light on the frustrations the squad faced in combat, particularly with seeing a man regarded as the lead insurgent in the Hamdania area repeatedly released from custody.

Defense attorneys in both Hutchins' and Magincalda's cases did not deny that their clients played a role in the plot. But they argued that violence toward Iraqi detainees was encouraged by the men's superiors.

Jurors heard testimony from Marines that superiors in their company beat Iraqi suspects during questioning and shoved guns in their faces or mouths. And Lt. Nathan Phan, who was in charge of the platoon, testified that he had directed Hutchins to choke another Iraqi detainee until he was unconscious. The Marine Corps reprimanded Phan earlier this year.

Phan also testified that he and the squad had talked about killing local insurgents, and that his attitude may have shaped the kidnapping and slaying plot. But he did not order Marines to do what they did on the night in question, he said.

During Thomas' trial, one of the convicted squad members, Pvt. Robert Pennington, told the jury that "in the end, the actions we took prevented bodily harm or death to Marines."

And at Hutchins trial, Pennington told the jury that he and his squad mates were "sick of" the rules of engagement and "decided to write our own rules to keep ourselves alive."

During his sentencing hearing, Hutchins spoke about his squad's "frustration" with their inability to keep the area's lead insurgent in custody. The sergeant did not offer apologies for the slaying.

Attorney Brannon said the lack of remorse likely had "a significant impact" on the jury, but that "Sgt. Hutchins feels like he did what he was told."

"We had a tragic mistake, although I think it was command-influenced," Brannon said, "and I think it is very difficult emotionally for Larry to deal with that mistake."

'Vagaries of the jury system'

Four of the five men who pleaded guilty to lesser charges made deals that gave them less than two years of jail time. Two of those men have already served their time and been released from the brig.

Pennington was the fifth man to plead guilty. He agreed to an eight-year prison sentence in exchange for his testimony.

Hutchins' 15-year sentence was a surprise to Gary Solis, a retired Marine legal officer who teaches military law at Georgetown University, given the decisions by other juries to let Hutchins squad mates go free.

"This illustrates the vagaries of the jury system," Solis said in a phone call to his Washington D.C. office. "There's no predicting what a jury will do. Some will think that this jury is overly harsh, others will think that it is appropriate in its sentence."

He also noted that some felt the decisions by other juries were appropriate, while others found it too lenient.

The decision to prosecute the men for actions in a war zone, he said, tells him that the Marine Corps "takes the offenses seriously."

"It sends its own message that the Marine Corps won't tolerate it," Solis said.

According to Solis' research, of the 27 Marines who were convicted of unlawfully killing Vietnamese civilians, 15 were handed life sentences. An additional three Marines got sentences of more than 20 years, and two others were sentenced to 10 years.

The longest sentence served by any of those Marines convicted for killing Vietnamese civilians was 12 years and one month, Solis found.

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