CAMP PENDLETON -- Military prosecutors on Friday dropped assault charge they had levied against a Camp Pendleton corporal who is also charged with the kidnapping and slaying of a retired Iraqi policeman, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

Maj. Jeff Nyhart said the assault charge against Cpl. Trent Thomas was dropped because the alleged victim refused to cooperate with military prosecutors.

The decision to dismiss the assault charge -- which was part of an unrelated case arising from the slaying investigation -- came one day after a military judge told prosecutors to drop the charge or grant Thomas' defense team a visit to Iraq to interview the alleged victim.

Prosecutors say Thomas is one of eight Camp Pendleton troops assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment who dragged a 52-year-old Iraqi man out of his home and shot him, then tried to stage the scene by framing him as an insurgent planting a 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, on April 26, 2006. Court-martial for the St. Louis native is set to begin on July 9.

The assault charge stemmed from unrelated allegations that Thomas and some of his squad mates beat a different Iraqi man in Hamdania more than two weeks before Awad's slaying.