Corporal Jerry Shumate was jailed for 21 months after he pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault of an Iraqi man who was killed in the town of Hamdania in April. Shumate also admitted conspiracy to obstruct justice. In return for his guilty pleas, other charges including murder, kidnapping, assault and conspiracy were dismissed. During his testimony at Camp Pendleton in California, Shumate said that the squad had been looking for Iraqis planting IED's when the men agreed a plan to kill a known insurgent. Four of the squad from the 2nd platoon of Kilo Company from Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment left to abduct him, Shumate said. When they returned with a prisoner, he thought he was "told to fire" by the squad leader and fired between 10 and 20 rounds at the detainee. The team leader gave no such order to be followed, and was on the other side of the village under fire with two other Marines.Eight men were originally charged with kidnapping the Iraqi man and trying to cover up his killing by planting a gun and a shovel next to the body to make him look like he was planting bombs. He was seized from his home after the suspected insurgent could not be found. Other US marines based at Camp Pendleton are under investigation over a separate incident in November 2005 in which 24 civilians were killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha. (North County Times and other online reports 22 November 2006) As of April, 2009 only 3 of the Haditha Marines still face any charges at all. Pennington's plea deal and sentence On February 18, 2007, the fifth Marine to be tried, Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, received an eight-year jail sentence after agreeing to plead guilty to conspiracy and kidnapping charges. In return for his cooperative testimony against the remaining three defendants, prosecutors dropped additional charges of murder, larceny, and housebreaking. The initial sentence was reduced from 14 years to eight in return for his cooperation. Pennington served a few months of the sentence for his role in the murder and was granted clemency and released from prison on August 11, 2007. Hutchins found guilty of murder On August 2, 2007, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III was found guilty of (*unpremeditated murder) by a military court-martial jury. In addition, Hutchins was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, making a