CAMP PENDLETON - The Marine Corps has dropped murder charges and issued a grant of immunity to a sergeant accused of taking part in actions that led to the deaths of two dozen civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha in 2005, a development that could bolster the government's prosecution of other defendants.

The withdrawal of charges against Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz was approved by Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis "after the government balanced the low level of culpability in the alleged crimes against the value of his testimony," according to a statement issued at Camp Pendleton.

Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps attorney and now a military law professor at Georgetown University, said giving immunity to the 24-year-old Dela Cruz does not bode well for the other enlisted men.

"The defense of the other men just got a lot more difficult," Solis said during a telephone interview. "The government now has testimony from an inside man who presumably will testify against the others."

Brian Rooney, an attorney for the highest-ranking man charged in the case, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, said after reading the investigatory documents that he thought Dela Cruz had "a lot to worry about."

"I suspect they had him (Dela Cruz) over a barrel," Rooney said, adding the development wasn't surprising and probably would not have much impact on the case against Chessani, who was dismissed from his post as commander when the battalion returned from Iraq in April 2006.

Dela Cruz was charged Dec. 21, 2006, with five counts of what the military calls unpremeditated murder for shooting five men who emerged from a taxi that drove up shortly after a Humvee was destroyed by a roadside bomb in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005. The bombing killed Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas of Texas.

Three other enlisted men still face murder charges, including the squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who is accused of killing 19 of the 24 civilians who died at the hands of the troops from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton. The incident drew worldwide condemnation when it was first reported in March 2006 and is one of the deadliest incidents in the four-year-old Iraq war.

Mark Zaid, an attorney for Wuterich, said he remains confident in the defense case.

"We are prepared to respond to any and all allegations and in that sense the immunity deal has changed nothing," Zaid said. "I do have some concern that if the principles the government is attempting to espouse - that all the guilty parties should be punished for alleged misconduct - and their case is so strong, why are they making a deal?"

Zaid also said documents show Dela Cruz gave investigators several conflicting statements.

"So if there is something new to come from him, it would probably be inconsistent with other statements he has given," Zaid said, adding that attorneys for all the defendants anticipated that one or more would make a deal with prosecutors.

Dela Cruz's attorney, Daniel Marino, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

A native of Chicago, Dela Cruz was on his third tour in Iraq when the incident took place. Had he been tried and convicted of murder, Dela Cruz could have faced life in prison and a dishonorable discharge. In addition to allegedly killing the five men who emerged from the taxi, Dela Cruz also is alleged to have urinated on one of the slain men.

Mattis, the convening authority over the case as head of Marine Corps forces in the Middle East, approved the deal with Dela Cruz on April 2, but the Marine Corps did not disclose the deal until now because it first wanted to notify all the attorneys involved in the case.

Wuterich has acknowledged ordering the shooting of five men who emerged from the taxi and ordering the assault of nearby homes where 19 others, including several women and children, were killed.

An Article 32 hearing for Wuterich at which the government and defense present their theories of the case is tentatively set to begin June 4. The hearing officer who presides over that session will ultimately decide whether to recommend Mattis order the case to court-martial.

In addition to Wuterich, the enlisted defendants are Lance Cpls. Justin Sharratt and Stephen Tatum. Sharratt is charged with three counts of unpremeditated murder. Tatum is charged with two counts of unpremeditated murder, four counts of negligent homicide and one count of assault.

The officers - Chessani, Capts. Randy Stone and Lucas McConnell and 1st Lt. Andrew Grayson - face dereliction of duty and related charges for allegedly failing to properly investigate the initial reports of the deaths in Haditha.

Wuterich and attorneys for the other men charged with homicide contend that while the deaths were regrettable, the Marines' actions were within the military's rules of engagement and their clients are innocent of any criminal act. Attorneys for the officers also maintain their clients properly carried out their responsibilities and are not guilty of any crime.

Last week, the North County Times reported that the Haditha prosecution is fraught with problems. The difficulties include conflicting statements from Iraqis whose testimony led to the charges and an incomplete forensic reconstruction of the events that have resulted in prosecutors delaying the start of hearings against some of the accused, according to several sources with intimate knowledge of the case.

Also at issue are interrogations conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Iraq during which agents allegedly refused to provide attorneys for some suspects who asked for them and refused the men bathroom breaks, the sources said.

In January, a team of prosecutors from Camp Pendleton went to Iraq and spent several weeks in Haditha interviewing witnesses and seeing the four houses that were assaulted following the roadside bomb attack.

Part of the reason for that trip, according to several sources, was that the forensic reconstruction done by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was considered lacking.

Like the other defendants, Dela Cruz has remained at Camp Pendleton while the investigation continues.

In a 2004 story in Marines Magazine, a publication from the Marine Corps, the then-lance corporal recounted his part in the opening days of a fight in the An Najaf cemetery when U.S. forces battled Iraqi militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his militia.

According to that piece, Dela Cruz was the only member of his fire team in that brutal graveyard battle who was a veteran of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. That story also said Dela Cruz's fire team "took constant sniper fire, mortars and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), and rarely saw who was shooting at them."

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