CAMP PENDLETON - A Marine sergeant who led his squad to kidnap and kill a civilian in Iraq was found guilty Thursday of murder, making him the first Marine convicted of murdering an Iraqi since the start of the war.

Special Report

Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III faces life in prison for his role in the slaying last year in the village of Hamdania. But because jurors rejected a charge that the murder was premeditated, they spared the Marine an automatic life sentence and left the door open for a lighter punishment.

The conviction comes in the middle of a long summer of hearings over this and another case in which Camp Pendleton troops are accused of killing Iraqi civilians. Though all eight servicemen involved in the Hamdania killing pleaded guilty to or were convicted of lesser charges, juries - which have been made up of combat veterans - had until Thursday stopped short of convicting any other Marine of murder.

Hutchins, 23, was the leader of a squad accused of pulling a man from his home, marching him to a hole and shooting him, then staging the scene to make it appear the Iraqi was planting a roadside bomb.

"I knew there was a chance he would be found guilty of murder," said Rich Brannon, Hutchins' attorney. "He's the squad leader. Everybody points the finger at my client."

The meat of the government's case against Hutchins and two other men tried in the slaying came in the form of testimony from Hutchins' squad mates, who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for testifying against those who went to trial.

The point of the plot, they testified, was to send a message to insurgents in the area to stop attacking U.S. troops.

On top of murder, the native of Plymouth, Mass., was also convicted of conspiracy, larceny and making false official statements regarding the crime. The jury acquitted him of other charges, including kidnapping, housebreaking and assault.

Hutchins' sentence will be up to the same jury of Marines who convicted him.

"All those bullets missed my head in Iraq by inches, but here I am with my life about to be taken away," Hutchins told the jury during his sentencing hearing after the verdict was handed down.

The sergeant did not offer apologies for the slaying. But during his sentencing hearing, he spoke about his squad's "frustration" of knowing specifically who the area's lead insurgent was. He said they were unable to stop him. The suspect had repeatedly been arrested and released, according to testimony.

"We could not do anything about it," Hutchins said. "Or I should say, we had done everything we could about it."

So they went after the insurgent on their own. When they couldn't get to him, they grabbed his neighbor, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, and carried out the rest of the plan.

As the jury foreman read the verdict, Hutchins stood stoically in court. He was a far cry from the man his squad mates described on the stand, a man who allegedly stood over the body and said, "Gents, we just got away with murder."

Sitting in the gallery behind him, Hutchins' wife, Reyna, sobbed silently, as did his mother, Kathleen. The couple's 2-year-old daughter, Kylie, with ponytails and pink fingernails, sat on her paternal grandfather's lap and played with his glasses as her father listened to the verdict.

Testifying at his sentencing hearing shortly after the verdict was read, Hutchins' family asked the jury to let him out of jail.

"I gave him to the Marines, and all I want them to do is give him back to me," said Kathleen Hutchins, who sobbed during most of her few moments on the witness stand.

The muscular sergeant put his hands to his face and softly cried.

In a courtroom two buildings away, another squad mate, Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, had just finished asking another jury to let him out of jail and let him stay in the Marine Corps. On Wednesday, a jury convicted Magincalda of conspiracy for his role in the plot.

Each of the eight troops, seven Marines and one Navy corpsman, spent much of the last year in the brig. For Hutchins, it has been nearly 450 days behind bars.

Hutchins' jury is expected to begin deliberating his sentence today.