(Adds quotes, details throughout, byline) By Marty Graham CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Oct 26 (Reuters) - One of eight U.S. soldiers accused in the kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi man in Hamdania pleaded guilty on Thursday to lesser charges of assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Pfc. John Jodka became the second defendant to plead guilty in the April 26 death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad. He testified that the 52-year-old grandfather was shot to death by the soldiers after their plan to seize and kill a different Iraqi man, a known insurgent, went wrong. The 20-year-old Marine entered his guilty plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors that calls for the dismissal of murder, kidnapping and larceny charges and a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He is to be sentenced Nov. 15. Jodka testified during a court martial hearing at Camp Pendleton that the men had agreed with their squad leader, Lt. Lawrence Hutchins, to seize and kill an insurgent identified as Saleh Gowad who had been detained and released several times. Jodka said he was one of four Marines who stayed behind when four others, acting as a forward party, went into the village to kidnap Gowad. When the forward party could not find Gowad, Jodka said, they grabbed Awad instead and brought him back to a hole near the others. "The only time I saw Mr. Awad was when he stood up and ran north toward the road," Jodka told Lt. Col. David Jones, the officer in charge of his court martial. Jodka said he and five of the other defendants opened fire. "I don't know if I actually hit him sir," Jodka told Jones. He said the men placed a shovel and rifle near Awad's body to suggest that he had been planting a roadside bomb. Jodka's account of the events in Hamdania echoed that given earlier this month by Navy medic Melson Bacos, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and conspiracy in the case. Bacos, 21, testified that his patrol leader's anger at the release of Gowad from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison prompted Awad's murder and said he went along with the plot out of misguided loyalty. Awad's murder in the middle of the night in Hamdania was one in a series of incidents in which the conduct of American troops in Iraq further damaged the image of the United States in a war that has been widely criticized around the world. Other Camp Pendleton-based Marines are under investigation in a separate incident in November 2005 in which 24 civilians were killed in the Iraqi town of Haditha. (Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles)
