CAMP PENDLETON -- A Marine corporal was described Monday as a reluctant participant in the April 2006 abduction and shooting death of an Iraqi civilian, an incident that led to charges of murder and kidnapping for he and several other Marines.

Attorney Joseph Low told a six-member military jury that Cpl. Marshall Magincalda was hesitant about the plan that led to the killing of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the spring of 2006. Magincalda's military trial began on Camp Pendleton Monday morning.

A veteran of three Iraq deployments, Low said Magincalda refused to take part in the shooting of the retired Iraqi policeman but acknowledged the 24-year-old native of Manteca, Calif., did help stage the killing scene to make it appear that Awad was an insurgent.

"He said 'I ain't gonna do it,'" Low said of Magincalda's refusal to take part in the actual shooting of the Iraqi.

But the prosecutor, Maj. Donald Plowman, told the panel members that Magincalda played a key role in planning the killing and took part in virtually all of its elements, including attempts to cover it up when confronted by investigators after the slain man's family complained to military authorities.

"He helped kill this man and then he lied about it," Plowman said during the prosecution's opening statement in Magincalda's hearing, which was conducted inside a small base courtroom. "Justice will demand you find the accused guilty of all the charges."

Magincalda is the second man from the Kilo Company 1st squad, 2nd platoon from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment to take his case to trial.

Five other men, four Marines and a Navy medical corpsman, struck plea deals and received sentences ranging from one to eight years behind bars.

A sixth defendant, Cpl. Trent Thomas, was found guilty by a military jury last week of conspiracy to commit murder and related offenses. Though prosecutors asked for a sentence of 15 years in a military prison, the jury instead gave Thomas a bad conduct discharge and reduction in rank.

Like his squad mates, Magincalda is charged with murder, conspiracy, kidnapping, housebreaking, larceny and making a false official statement for the incident that took place in the village of Hamdania northwest of Baghdad. He faces a possible life prison sentence if convicted of murder.

The holder of a Purple Heart for a wound he suffered during a 2004 battle in Fallujah, Magincalda is accused of distributing spent shell casings from a stolen AK-47 rifle around Awad's body in the early morning hours of April 26 to make it appear he had fired at the troops.

Magincalda's trial is expected to last through the middle of next week.

On Tuesday, jury selection begins in another base courtroom for the squad leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins.

See Tuesday's North County Times for more on the start of the Magincalda trial.

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