CAMP PENDLETON - Jurors will not hear a broadcast interview in which a Marine corporal accused of murdering an Iraqi man said the killing was done to "set an example for any future terrorists," a judge ruled Thursday.

Prosecutors wanted to show the interview Cpl. Trent Thomas gave to CNN in February, the day before Thomas withdrew his plea of guilty to the charges.

Thomas is one of eight Camp Pendleton troops assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment accused of dragging a 52-year-old Iraqi man out of his home, shooting him, then staging the scene to make it appear he had been planting a roadside bomb.

Thomas has pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related offenses in the death of the man, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, in the rural Iraqi village of Hamdania on April 26, 2006.

A court-martial, or military trial, for the 25-year-old St. Louis native is set to begin on July 9.

According to testimony from some of Thomas' co-defendants, the plan was to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent, Saleh Gowad.

But when the squad could not find Gowad, they instead grabbed his neighbor, Awad, and carried out the rest of the plan.

"At the time I felt that I was doing what I had to do," Thomas said in the interview, which aired February 12, "and now that I'm back here, I know that it was wrong what we did. And for that, I'm truly sorry."

In the CNN interview, Thomas compared the situation of the Marines to that of a badly abused wife.

"Put Marines in the same situation," he said. "They're getting shot at. They're getting blown up every day. And they get mad, and they go out and do something. Is it justified?"

The point of the killing was to "set an example for any future terrorists that are going to put an IED on this road," Thomas said during the interview.

But the military judge, Lt. Col. David Jones, said he was "not inclined" to let prosecutors present the interview as evidence, and found the interview could be "a waste of time and irrelevant" to the case.

Two of Thomas' co-defendants have also pleaded not guilty to playing roles in Awad's death, and are set for court-martial this summer.

The other five accused men have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and agreed to testify against the others in exchange for light sentences.

Four of the five troops were sentenced to less than two years confinement for their roles in the slaying, including those who were triggerman.

One of the men who pleaded guilty, Pvt. Robert Pennington, testified Thursday that he advised Thomas against the interview.

"I told him it was a bad idea," Pennington said. "I said 'It's CNN. They are gonna twist it, You know they are gonna twist it.' "

But Thomas had already decided to do it, Pennington said.

"I think he said he wanted to get his message out," Pennington said.

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