Former Marine Convicted Of Making False Statements About Accidental Shooting

A former Marine corporal was convicted of making false statements about the accidental shooting of a fellow U.S. serviceman at a trial on Wednesday after a judge criticized the government for using the civil courts to resolve an "internal military matter," according to The Associated Press.

Wilfredo Santiago was convicted by a federal court jury in Manhattan on one count but was exonerated on another false statements count, the AP reported. Sentencing was set for Oct. 9, and he could face up to five years in prison.

Both charges stemmed from the January 2008 accidental shooting of a Navy medic serving in the same fighting unit at Camp Echo in Diwaniyah, Iraq, according to the AP.

Defense attorney Annalisa Miron called the conviction "an injustice," and prosecutors said Santiago, then 24, lied about his gun going off in the windowless room where five men lived but later told the truth when confronted with the facts investigators had assembled, the AP reported. They said the lies had jeopardized the victim's benefits, which are less if a serviceman deliberately shoots himself.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon has been critical of the government's handling of the case, saying its use of the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act was unprecedented, according to the AP.

McMahon said the law passed more than a decade ago to permit the prosecution of crimes committed principally by civilian dependents and military contractors had not before resulted in the indictment of a former serviceman for conduct known to military authorities while he could have faced court martial, the AP reported.

"How this court became involved, in 2013, in an internal military matter involving conduct committed in Iraq in 2008, is its own conundrum," McMahon wrote in a decision last year, according to the AP. When she tossed out a charge of reckless assault against Santiago in December, she wrote of the case: "It is not a tale that inspires confidence in our criminal justice system."