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thedrifter
03-06-09, 11:09 AM
Former Marine gets 34 months in jail
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, March 7, 2009

OKINAWA CITY, Okinawa — A former Marine who pleaded guilty to illegal entry into a military installation, car theft and other crimes was sentenced in Japanese court Thursday to 34 months in prison with forced labor.

Christopher Chad Hoskins, 28, who is unemployed and no longer falls under the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, admitted in earlier hearings that in August he stole items valued at $970 from a car parked in the Plaza Housing Area.

He admitted he also stole another Marine’s car and items inside, valued at $3,350, according to testimony. In both cases, he gained access to the base by climbing over barbed-wire fences.

He was arrested by military police Aug. 28 when he was spotted peeking inside cars parked in the housing area.

The incident occurred while he was on probation for a 2007 conviction for illegally entering Camp Foster.

Hoskins was also found guilty Thursday of breaking into the Jehovah’s Witness Church in Kitanakagusuku in November 2006, stealing 16 items including TV sets, valued at $5,760. Hoskins’ DNA matched that of blood left on a glass cabinet in the church.

During the sentencing, Judge Takashi Sakakibara called the nature of Hoskins’s offenses malicious and habitual.

"In less than nine months of your conviction of the 2007 theft, you repeated the same offenses," Sakakibara said.

But Sakakibara said the court took into consideration that Hoskins’ Japanese wife promised the court to support her husband and will be there for him when he returns from prison.

Ellie