A U.S. Marine sergeant found guilty of murder in the retrial of an Iraq war crimes case involving the slaying of a retired Iraqi policeman is a free man after a jury recommended he should get no additional prison time Thursday.
Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III was found guilty of murder, larceny and conspiracy in a verdict reached Wednesday evening by a military jury of three enlisted men and three military officers.
Because of a previous conviction on this charges, Hutchins has already served seven years of an 11-year sentence. The jury decided Hutchins should be free on time served, but he will be discharged from the Marine Corps for bad conduct.
His attorney, Chris Oprison, told NBC 7 his case will go up for appeal in the next couple of years.
"There are so many assignments of error in this case, and we think we've got some reversible error locked in, so there's no question in my mind that it's going to go up," said Oprison.
Hutchins still has a $52,000 bill to pay to the U.S. government as well.
The 2006 killing involved 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad from the village of Hamdania.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 2,379 days in prison, minus time served for Hutchins.
Oprison said the men in Iraq with Hutchins credit him with saving their lives.
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"Every single one of those guys says they came home alive because of Sgt. Hutchins," the defense attorney said. "They don't blame him, they thank him for getting them out alive because of his leadership. They did what they had to do."
Over the years, Hutchins has had his conviction overturned twice by military courts after rulings that there were errors in the handling of his case.
Under the military justice system, the Navy was allowed to order his case to be retried.
