CAMP PENDLETON -- More plea deals may soon emerge in the case of seven Marines facing murder and related charges in the April shooting death of an Iraqi man, attorneys said Wednesday.

"I know that there are other people talking," said Jane Siegel, a civilian attorney for the lowest-ranking and least-experienced defendant, Pfc. John Jodka III.

The pace of plea discussions has picked up in recent days, fueled by the deal reached by Navy Petty Officer Melson Bacos last week, other sources close to the case said.

The next official development takes place Friday, when the arraignment of Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr. is scheduled to take place in the same Camp Pendleton courtroom where Bacos detailed what he claimed was a plot in which all of those charged were willing participants.

Like his squad mates, Shumate is charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related offenses in the April 26 shooting death of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the town of Hamdania, Iraq.

A 21-year-old infantryman from a small town in western Washington state, Shumate also faces an assault charge arising from the alleged beating of another Iraqi in Hamdania on April 10.

When Jodka was arraigned last week, a military judge issued a temporary gag order preventing their attorneys from discussing the case. That order was lifted in the wake of the Bacos plea, allowing Siegel to discuss the case.

She would not comment on whether she is working on a deal for Jodka such as one struck by Bacos, who was assigned to the squad to provide the emergency medical services.

Speculation that Jodka might be reaching a plea deal was heightened last week when Marine Corps officials confirmed he had been moved from the brig at Camp Pendleton where all the men charged in the case have been held since May 24. He is now being held in the brig at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in northern San Diego.

Bacos was moved to Miramar last week at the request of his attorneys as his plea deal came together. Jodka's attorneys did not make a similar request, Siegel said, adding that it is her understanding the defendants other than Bacos were separated by authorities in an apparent effort to keep them from talking with one another.

She said that at least two others, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, named by Bacos as the leader of the plan that led to Awad's death, and Lance Cpl. Tyler Jackson, have been moved to an area of the Camp Pendleton brig that keeps them apart from the defendants still being held in that facility.

In exchange for Bacos' guilty pleas to kidnapping and conspiracy to kidnap and make false statements, a 10-year prison sentence, reduction in rank and dishonorable discharge were suspended in favor of a one-year sentence and no dishonorable discharge. Bacos still could be reduced in rank by order of the secretary of the Navy.

The deal that Bacos got requires the 21-year-old Wisconsin native to testify for the government at any trial.

The agreement between Bacos and prosecutors may be the best that any of the men can hope to strike, according to Kathleen Duignan, head of the Institute of Military Justice in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit group devoted to educating the public about the military justice system.

"Usually, the first person to the table gets the best deal," Duignan said during a Wednesday telephone interview. "If others are inclined to plead guilty, now is the time to go to the table."

When he pleaded guilty, Bacos told a military judge that he and the Marines hatched a plot to seize a suspected insurgent in Hamdania and that they further agreed to go after someone else if that man could not be found.

When they could not find their original target, the group seized Awad from his home, bound his hands and feet, and marched him to a roadside spot that members of the squad groomed to make it appear that Awad was an insurgent killed while planting a roadside bomb, according to the testimony.

Bacos testified that each of the men from the 2nd platoon of Kilo Company from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment agreed to take part in the plot and that none tried to stop what had been set in motion as the sun set on April 25. Awad was killed in the early morning hours of April 26.

The family of Lance Cpl. Shumate was leaving their Washington home Wednesday for the more than 1,000-mile drive to Camp Pendleton to be present at his arraignment.

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