CAMP PENDLETON -- A Marine sniper has been charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter in the June 2007 deaths of two civilians in Iraq.

The sniper, Sgt. John Winnick II, faces additional accusations of aggravated assault against two other civilians and failing to adhere to the military's rules of engagement.

The charges represent the fifth case involving alleged unlawful killings in Iraq to have been brought against Camp Pendleton Marines since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

A hearing for Winnick will take place at Camp Pendleton this summer to determine if the charges against him should stand.

The charges were disclosed to the North County Times during a Thursday telephone conversation with Gary Myers, a civilian attorney who has been hired to represent Winnick. He added he had just been brought into the case and had not yet received a full briefing.

A Marine attorney with intimate knowledge of the case also confirmed the charges, which have not been made public by base officials.

According to a charging document, Winnick is alleged to have killed the civilians on June 17 while operating out of Combat Outpost Golden near Lake Tharthar in Iraq's western Anbar province. The charges also allege he fired at two others without first making a positive determination that any of the civilians posed a threat.

Winnick was a member of Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division working with the base's 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit when the incident occurred.

"The basic allegation is that he shot these people without justification and not having positively identified them as having hostile intent," said the Marine attorney who requested anonymity because the charges have not yet been announced publicly.

If ordered to trial and convicted, Winnick could face up to 40 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. He was on his fourth combat assignment when the incident occurred, according to the Marine attorney.

Prosecutors have asked that a fact-finding Article 32 hearing for Winnick take place as soon as next week, but his attorneys are requesting a delay to give them more time to prepare their case.

Twenty other base troops have been charged with unlawful killings in Iraq.

Seven Marines and a Navy corpsman were charged in 2006 with the killing of a retired Iraqi policeman. All were convicted or pleaded guilty to offenses related to that incident, with the squad leader in that case, former Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. His sentence was later commuted to 11 years behind bars.

Four officers and four enlisted men from the base were charged with offenses in the slaying of two dozen Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha in 2005. Six of the eight, including an enlisted man represented by Myers, have since been acquitted or had charges withdrawn.

A fourth case involves the killing of four suspected insurgents that a squad of Marines detained during fighting in the city of Fallujah in 2004. Two Marines are being prosecuted on murder charges at Camp Pendleton in that incident while their squad leader, Jose L. Nazario, is being prosecuted as a civilian in U.S. District Court in Riverside because he is no longer in the Marine Corps and not subject to recall into the service.

The fifth case involved the killing of an Iraqi army soldier by Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes after the two got into a fight while standing guard duty at Camp Fallujah on Dec. 31, 2006. Holmes was convicted by a base jury of negligent homicide last December, ordered reduced in rank and given a bad conduct discharge.

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