Marine convicted in transgender slaying during shore leave in Philippines

Update: US Marine convicted in transgender slaying during shore leave in the Philippines, do you believe the verdict is just?

"Unfortunate... For both... Not that it matters now, but do you believe, considering, the verdict in this case was just?"

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines — A U.S. Marine was convicted of homicide Tuesday for the slaying of a transgender woman whom he picked up while on shore leave.

Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton was sentenced to six to 12 years in a Philippine prison and ordered to pay 4,655,250 pesos (about $10,000) in damages to the family of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, 26. He is getting credit for time served.

Pemberton, an anti-tank missile operator from New Bedford, Mass., had been charged with murder but was convicted of the lesser charge due to mitigating circumstances, including lack of premeditation and that he was intoxicated at the time.

Pemberton met Laude on Oct. 11, 2014, in a disco in a red-light district of Olongapo — the main city along Subic Bay — while bar-hopping with other Marines after joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises.

They checked into a nearby hotel, and Laude was later found strangled with her head in the toilet. Cause of death was determined to be drowning.

About 100 riot police cordoned off streets around the courthouse in Olongapo, about 80 miles from Manila, and about 200 protesters awaited the verdict. Some in the crowd waved placards with photos of Laude, while speakers told of other crimes committed by U.S. troops over the years. The demonstrators continued to hang around peacefully after the conviction was announced.

The case has cast a pall over the renewal of military relations between the U.S. and the Philippines, providing fodder for those who object to any American presence.

It appeared that Judge Roline Jabalbe was rejecting a deal between U.S. and Philippine officials that would allow Pemberton to serve his time on the Camp Aguinaldo military base. She said he is a “national prisoner” and should go to the new Bilibid civilian prison.

When Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith was convicted of rape in 2005 and sentenced to 40 years, many Filipinos were angry when he was detained at the U.S. Embassy, rather than a local prison, and then returned to the U.S. following a settlement with the victim’s family.

The judge’s lengthy decision, read on a live Internet feed, included a rundown on testimony in the trial that began in March.

Pemberton testified that he had a half-dozen beers and several shots of liquor on the night of the slaying. He said that when he got to the disco, he was approached by what he thought were two provocatively dressed women who offered to have sex with him. They went to the hotel room, and one left to get condoms.

Pemberton testified that when he discovered Laude was a man, a fight ensued. Pemberton said he used a choke hold to subdue Laude but claimed she was still breathing when he left and that someone else must have killed her.

A shipmate testified that after Pemberton returned to his ship, he said, “I think I killed a he-she.”

While the slaying sparked some protests, public support also has been growing for a stronger U.S. military presence, particularly with China’s aggression in the South China Sea, the ongoing threat of terrorism and the typhoons, earthquakes and volcanoes that regularly batter the country.

U.S. bases in the Philippines were shut down more than two decades ago after the Philippine Senate rejected a treaty to renew their lease.

Then came the rise of Muslim separatist groups like the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, which carried out illegal activities, including a lengthy mass kidnapping in 2001 when they used the ransom to buy better weapons and boats.

The U.S. sent in counterterrorism trainers, high-tech surveillance equipment and other gear to help raise the Philippine military’s professionalism in what was dubbed the second front in the global war on terrorism after Afghanistan.

Despite criticism of the return of American troops, that low-key mission — U.S. forces were banned from direct involvement in combat — has been largely hailed as a success, with Abu Sayyaf’s leadership decimated.

The U.S. military’s image has been further burnished by its help in the wake of natural disasters, particularly the most powerful typhoon on record that devastated large swaths of the central Philippines two years ago.

Then China began building up disputed low-lying reefs and islets in the South China Sea that are claimed by the Philippines and other countries. There have been small-scale clashes, leading Manila to sign an agreement with President Barack Obama to allow U.S. forces to pre-position disaster relief supplies and other materials in the country.

That deal spawned its own backlash, with the Philippine Senate calling it a treaty that should require Senate ratification instead of something that the president could finalize alone. The national Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the agreement now, with a decision expected this month that could spark its own protests.

Patricio Abinales, a Philippines expert at the University of Hawaii, says any fallout from the Pemberton case is likely to be short-lived.

“I think there will be the usual noise from the small left-wing groups, but in the light of what China is doing, and with Obama reiterating American commitment to Philippine security during last week’s APEC meeting, Pemberton’s case will be in the media for at most a week, then disappear to the inside pages,” Abinales said.

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