Local Marine Charged With Murder

PLYMOUTH, Mass. -- The family of a Plymouth Marine said they are standing behind him after he and six other servicemen were charged with murdering an Iraqi civilian.

NewsCenter 5's Jorge Quiroga reported that Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins' family said the charges are shocking.

"The way he is being portrayed to be, it is not him. That's not Sgt. Hutchins. That's not my fiancé, that's not my daughter's father," said Reyna Griffin.

Griffin spoke with Hutchins on Thursday night when he called from a military prison in California. He is among seven Marines and one sailor charged with premeditated murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.

"He told me it did not happen the way they are saying it happened," Griffin said.

A legal document charges that in April, the troops were watching an intersection west of Baghdad for insurgents. When nobody showed up, the document says, the soldiers took a disabled man from his home and shot him, leaving an assault rifle and shovel by his side, making it look he'd been planting bombs.

While the military is providing Hutchins with an attorney, the family has hired a criminal lawyer that will cost them as much as $100,000.

Hutchins' father said he is outraged by the charges.

"They were treated like they were the felons who went down to a convenience store robbed a guy and killed him," said Lawrence Hutchins Sr. "These guys are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty."

High school sweethearts, Griffin said the father of her 21-month-old daughter Kayle was supposed to come home for good in October. Next week, she will fly out to California to see him face-to-face.

"I have thought about it over and over again, and I cannot imagine him doing something like that. I do not see it happening," said Lawrence Hutchins said.

Hutchins' family said they believe in their hearts that the third-generation Marine is a hero, and not a criminal, and pledged to stand behind him.