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A Marine on Tuesday admitted killing an unarmed prisoner during a 2004 battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah, but he is not expected to receive any jail time and could leave the service with an honorable discharge, his attorney said. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson's admission came as part of an agreement that saw him plead guilty to two counts of dereliction of duty for violating the military's rules of engagement and ignoring the laws of armed conflict with regard to treatment of enemy prisoners. Two other men accused of murder for the deaths of three other detainees in the same...

A Marine sergeant pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to two counts of dereliction of duty in connection with the shooting death of an unarmed detainee during the opening hours of the November 2004 battle for the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) - A military judge has dismissed a murder charge against a Marine accused of killing an unarmed detainee in Iraq. The charge against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was dismissed Tuesday at Camp Pendleton after he agreed to plead guilty to dereliction of duty. His attorney Joseph Low says the plea agreement calls for no prison time and an honorable discharge. The 28-year-old Nelson could have faced up to life in prison if convicted of murder. Nelson was among three Marines accused of killing detainees in 2004 during house-to-house fighting to recapture Fallujah.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The government has dropped a murder charge against a Marine who pleaded guilty Tuesday to dereliction of duty for killing an unarmed Iraqi detainee during a battle to recapture the city of Fallujah. If convicted of murder, Sgt. Jermaine Nelson could have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Instead, he now faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a bad conduct discharge – one grade less than dishonorable. Defense attorney Joseph Low told reporters the plea agreement says Nelson will not serve any prison time and will...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The murder and dereliction of duty trial for the last of three defendants charged with killing an unarmed detainee during a 2004 battle for what was then the insurgent-held Iraqi city of Fallujah gets under way Tuesday in a base courtroom. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson is accused of killing an unnamed detainee he and members of his Camp Pendleton squad captured in the opening hours of the battle that began on Nov. 9, 2004. Two co-defendants, former Marine sergeants Ryan Weemer and Jose L. Nazario Jr., were acquitted in separate trials for the same alleged offense. (snip) Nazario,...

A group of retired Marines is rallying behind Sgt. Jermaine Nelson, the last of three Marines to face trial in the killing of unarmed prisoners during a battle in Fallouja, Iraq, in November 2004. Two other defendants have been found innocent: former Sgt. Jose Nazario in federal court in August, and Sgt. Ryan Weemer in a court-martial at Camp Pendleton in April. Nelson's case is set for a pretrial hearing Monday at Camp Pendleton. He stands accused of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty. Calls for the charges to be dropped have come from retired Col. G.I. Wilson; William McNulty...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Despite having failed to win convictions of two co-defendants, the Marine Corps announced Friday it will prosecute Sgt. Jermaine Nelson for killing an unarmed Iraqi prisoner of war. Lt. Col. David Griesmer said a plea from Nelson's attorney to drop the murder charge has been rejected. The attorney, Joseph Low, said Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland believes the case should be decided by a jury. "Sometimes, a single person does not want to be the decision-maker," Low said of Helland, who has the authority to order the charges against Nelson withdrawn. "The general decided he would rather see...

Murder charges against a Marine sergeant at Camp Pendleton in the death of a prisoner in Fallujah, Iraq, will not be dropped, despite the acquittal of two Marines in the same case. Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, has decided that the case against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson should proceed to a court-martial.

The attorney for the third and final Marine charged with killing an unarmed insurgent in Iraq says prosecutors should heed the acquittals of two co-defendants and drop the case against his client. Attorney Joseph Low said Friday that it makes no sense for the Marine Corps to pursue the case against Sgt. Jermaine Nelson. "I am submitting that request to the Marine Corps," Low said. "The Marine Corps should have gotten the message loud and clear now that these cases should never have been brought." ~ snip ~Besides preparing a formal request for the Marine Corps to drop the case...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The Monday start of a trial for the second of three men accused of killing four unarmed captives during a 2004 battle in Iraq has been delayed. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson was scheduled to go on trial in a base courtroom on a charge of unpremeditated murder for allegedly shooting one of the captives. No bodies were ever found in a case built almost exclusively on an admission from one of the defendants. Nelson also is charged with three counts of dereliction of duty for failing to follow the rules of engagement, the laws of war and the...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Prosecutors want to drop contempt proceedings against two Marines who refused to testify against their former squad leader when he was being tried for the killings of four unarmed Iraqi detainees. Los Angeles-based U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien filed the motion Monday, asking U.S. District Judge Stephen Larson to drop the charges against Sgt. Ryan Weemer and Sgt. Jermaine Nelson. They refused to testify at the civilian trial of former Marine Jose Luis Nazario Jr., who was found not guilty of charges that he killed or caused others to kill four detainees in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. Weemer...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- After spending more than a week in jail for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions, a Marine accused of killing a suspected insurgent detainee in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 was arraigned in a base courtroom Wednesday morning. Sgt. Jermaine Nelson said during the 25-minute hearing that he would enter a plea to charges of murder and dereliction of duty at a later date. Nelson said little else during the session conducted by Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks, the military judge now assigned to the case. Nelson and two others, former Marine Jose L. Nazario...

A Marine sergeant accused of murdering an Iraqi insurgent at Fallujah more then three years ago was returned to Marine Corps control Thursday after spending a week in a Los Angeles civilian jail on federal contempt charges. US District Judge Percy Anderson ordered Sergeant Jermaine Nelson released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles a week after ordering him confined for refusing to testify against his former squad leader in a related federal murder investigation, his lawyer Joseph Low said. Nelson is charged by the Marine Corps with unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty for allegedly shooting an Iraqi...

A Marine charged with murder for killing an insurgent prisoner has been jailed in California for refusing to testify at a federal Grand Jury hearing evidence of alleged murder at Fallujah, Iraq. US District Judge Percy Anderson Wednesday ordered Sergeant Jermaine Nelson to confinement at the federal lockup in Los Angeles after giving him several opportunities to relent. “It was a beautiful thing to see,” said lawyer Joseph H. Low IV, the former Marine infantryman representing Nelson. “The prosecutors are attempting to break the bonds formed in combat. Nelson told them he’d rather go to jail than rat out a...

CAMP PENDLETON ---- The Marine Corps announced Monday it has charged a sergeant with unpremeditated murder for the killing of an Iraqi detainee in Fallujah in 2004. Sgt. Jermaine A. Nelson is the second person charged in the case in which four detainees were killed. The incident was first reported in the North County Times in late June. A Marine Corps spokesman stressed that Nelson is considered innocent until findings show otherwise, adding that leadership at Camp Pendleton is committed to fully investigating alleged acts of wrongdoing in Iraq. "Our message is to tell the citizens of the United States...