Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, may finally be able to move on with his life.

Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt

Cpl. Sharratt, who lived in North Huntingdon as a child, is one of eight Marines charged in the biggest U.S. criminal case involving civilian deaths in the Iraq war.

But an investigating officer has recommended that the charges against Cpl. Sharratt be dismissed, and while a final decision may be a long way off, his family is hopeful that he will not face a court-martial.

In a related case, a different hearing officer yesterday recommended that Marine Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani be sent to court-martial for dereliction of duty in not investigating the shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.

Col. Chessani, 43, a former infantry battalion commander, is the highest-ranking officer charged in what is the largest case of alleged war crimes involving U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. If convicted, he could be sent to prison for three years.

Cpl. Sharratt was accused of premeditated murder after he shot three Iraqi men with an M-9 service pistol in Haditha in 2005. If convicted, he would face life in prison.

The investigating officer, Lt. Col. Paul Ware, recommended in a report released yesterday that those charges be dismissed. The final say on the matter rests with the overseeing officer, Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of Marine Forces Central Command, who faces no timeline in making his decision. Gen. Mattis can accept, reject or modify the recommendation.

"We're very pleased about the results," said Cpl. Sharratt's attorney, Gary Myers of Washington, D.C. "But it can go in any direction."

Cpl. Sharratt's parents have allowed themselves to hope for the best. "We're 99 percent sure the charges will be dropped," said Darryl Sharratt of Canonsburg. "We are ecstatic that the truth has finally been revealed."

Iraqi witnesses claimed that three Marines deliberately executed four Iraqi men in a house after an improvised explosive device fatally wounded a Marine on Nov. 19, 2005. The witnesses -- a group of women and children -- said they had been held in a separate house during the executions.

The Marines contend that they entered the house after observing suspicious activity and, faced with a combat situation, fired in their own defense. Cpl. Sharratt shot three men before his weapon emptied, whereupon Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., killed the fourth.

In Col. Ware's opinion, the forensic evidence was not consistent with an execution, as the three men were shot facing forward and from a distance.

Col. Ware wrote in his report: "It is difficult, if not impossible to believe that trained and experienced Marines would decide to execute 4 unarmed men by leading them into a house, moving them to a back room with no light [curtains were closed] and allow them to move about the room while trying to shoot them with the least-effective weapon in their arsenal."

He also found the witnesses' accounts to be unreliable since their statements were taken in a group setting, and especially since they knew that other families in Haditha had received monetary compensation from the United States for events that occurred on the day of the shootings.

"To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary and sets a dangerous precedent. ...," Col. Ware wrote. "Even more dangerous is the potential that a Marine may hesitate at the critical moment when facing the enemy."

Cpl. Sharratt's father said the conclusion reached by the investigating officer was the only one that made sense. "When you see the amount of evidence that was presented, that was the only decision that could have been made," Daryll Sharratt said.

Cpl. Sharratt, who is working in an administrative capacity at Camp Pendleton, Calif., has been with the Marines since 2003. Before this incident, he had planned to pursue a military career, said his parents. Now, he is scheduled to be honorably discharged from the Marine Corps July 28.

If the charges are cleared, he plans to attend school, most likely in San Diego, where he has made friends with Marines and civilians alike.

"This cloud has been hanging over his plans," said Mr. Sharratt. "But with the exoneration of these charges, he will step forward with his life."

In Col. Chessani's case, the nonbinding recommendation for a court-martial from that hearing officer, Col. Christopher Conlin, was forwarded to Gen. Mattis. Col. Chessani's lawyers reacted angrily to the recommendation and said the morale of Marines in Iraq will be undercut if he is forced to a court-martial.

Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the Michigan-based Thomas More Law Center, which has represented Col. Chessani, said that unless Gen. Mattis rejects the recommendation, "ultimately there will be no aggressive military left to defend the life of our nation."

Col. Chessani was commander of 3rd battalion, 1st Marine regiment when troops killed 24 civilians, including women and children in Haditha that day. Marines killed five young men after ordering them out of their car. Nineteen other civilians were killed in three houses, as Marines searched for insurgents.

Col. Chessani has said he believed that the deaths, while tragic, were combat-related and caused by insurgents hiding behind civilians.

But prosecutors contend that he was derelict in not launching an investigation or providing detailed information to his superiors.