MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine court on Tuesday convicted a U.S. Marine of homicide in the killing of a transgender woman last year.
Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, 20, had been charged with murder, but the court convicted him of the lesser offense of homicide and sentenced him to six to 12 years in prison, a court clerk said. He was found guilty of killing Jennifer Laude, 26, of the Philippines, whom he had met in a nightclub in Olongapo City, about 100 miles north of Manila, in October 2014.
The court said that it had reduced the charge from murder because the element of "treachery" was not present in the killing. In addition to his prison sentence, Pemberton was ordered to pay the equivalent of about $100,000 to Laude's family, most of it as compensation for income lost because of her death.
Attorneys for both sides questioned the sentence, saying that by law, the sentence for homicide is six to 10 years. Harry Roque, an attorney for the victim's family, said Pemberton could be eligible for parole in three years.
Pemberton, who was in the Philippines for U.S. military exercises, and Laude went to a hotel room after meeting in the nightclub, according to testimony at the trial. Prosecutors presented closed circuit television footage showing the two entering the room together and the Marine leaving alone a few minutes later. Laude was later found dead in the room by a hotel worker, who testified that she was slumped over the toilet, apparently with a broken neck.
Defense attorneys argued that Laude had performed oral sex on Pemberton without disclosing that she was transgender, and that the Marine, who they said had almost no sexual experience when the incident occurred, had felt "raped" upon discovering that Laude had a penis. The corporal testified that a scuffle ensued in which he put Laude into a headlock but that she had been alive when he left the hotel room.
Rowena Garcia-Flores, an attorney for Pemberton, called the ruling flawed, questioning the court's analysis of forensic evidence presented in the case, and she said he would appeal.
Roque, the attorney representing the victim's family, called it "a bittersweet victory" and said the penalty was "very light given the heinousness of the crime."
It was unclear Tuesday where Pemberton would serve his sentence. Under the so-called Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries, he was held in U.S. custody during the trial, guarded by U.S. security personnel in a modified shipping container on a Philippine military base. The agreement requires that convicted U.S. military personnel serve out their sentence at a facility agreeable to both countries.
Prosecutors want Pemberton to serve his sentence in the country's dilapidated national prison near Manila, but Garcia-Flores said the defense would resist that option.
In April 2014, six months before the killing, the United States and the Philippines signed an agreement to expand military cooperation, which would involve stationing U.S. military ships, planes and troops in the country on a rotating basis. The deal, called the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, is pending while its constitutionality is considered by the Philippine Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the matter in December.
The administration of President Benigno S. Aquino III, which signed the deal without congressional approval, has argued that the agreement is needed in order to rapidly scale up the Philippine navy and air force to respond to territorial encroachment by China in the South China Sea. Opponents have argued that the deal is a treaty that must be approved the Philippine Senate and have argued that it will lead to U.S. military bases in the country.