Manteca Marine ponders re-enlistment
Written by JoLin Cash Friday, 05 October 2007

A Manteca Marine convicted of conspiring to kill a 52-year-old Iraqi man will be allowed to re-enlist in the Marine Corps, according to his family and a military attorney.


Though Marines spokesmen would not confirm this week that a decision has been made, a military attorney for Pvt. Marshall Magincalda Jr. said that the commanding general for the Marine Corps Forces had promised Magincalda that he would be able to re-enlist after his term of service expires in November.


A military jury convicted the 24-year-old Sierra High School graduate in August of larceny, housebreaking and conspiracy to murder but acquitted him of murder and kidnapping charges for his role in the killing of an Iraqi man in April 2006.


Normally a felony conviction bars anyone from enlisting or re-enlisting in the Marine Corps, but Magincalda’s attorney, Capt. Bow Bottomly, said Lt. Gen. James Mattis told Magincalda during a private mid-August meeting that his re-enlistment would be OK’d.


Though officials at the manpower division of Marine headquarters make the final decision on a re-enlistment case, Bottomly said the lieutenant general’s promise virtually guarantees that Magincalda could continue to serve.
“Basically, that’s what Gen. Mattis said,” Bottomly said. “Generally, what the general says goes. If he chooses to re-enlist, we’ll see if that goes through.”


Magincalda’s civilian attorney, Joseph Low, who sat in on the meeting between Mattis and Magincalda, confirmed Bottomly’s account.


Low said Mattis asked, “What are his intentions; does he want to re-enlist?” When Magincalda said he did, Low said, “The general said, ‘Well, we should allow you to do that.’”


Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for the U.S. Marines Corps Central Command, would not say whether Mattis said he would allow Magincalda to re-enlist, but he did acknowledge that Mattis met with him.


Mattis’ aide-de-camp at Camp Pendleton refused to comment on the meeting or Magincalda’s possible re-enlistment.
During the trial, prosecutors accused Magincalda and his squad-mates of dragging an Iraqi civilian out of bed and shooting him while he lay cuffed in a roadside ditch, after the squad’s attempt to find a suspected insurgent during a nighttime raid failed.


Prosecutors also said that the squad planted an AK-47 and shell casings by the man’s body to make it look like he was caught planting a roadside bomb.


After the split verdict, Magincalda was sentenced to a reduction in rank and 448 days in a naval brig — time he had already served by the end of the trial — but he was not discharged.


Only the squad leader was found guilty of murder, but other squad members who pleaded guilty were discharged and received sentences ranging from 12 months to eight years, though most of those have since been reduced.


Magincalda is now serving the remaining months of his commitment at the Camp Pendleton base near San Diego.
Magincalda’s stepmother, Leanne Magincalda, said that he was still deciding whether to return to Iraq as a Marine or to go back to college.


“What he has decided to do with that question is (to) wait until at least November, which is his date of official release,” Leanne Magincalda said.


She said her stepson is still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but, she added, “He’s very conscious of the fact that he didn’t want his Marine career to end this way.”

Ellie