US Marine Convicted of Raping Filipino Woman
   2006-12-04 20:48:20       CRIENGLISH.com
US Marine Lance Corporal Daniel J. Smith was convicted in a landmark rape case in the Phillipines on Monday and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Three other marines were acquitted of complicity.

The Court Secretary summed up the verdict at the end of a long, emotional trial.

"The prosecution, having presented sufficient evidence against Lance Corporal Daniel J. Smith, also of the US Marine Corps, assigned on the USS Essex. This court hereby finds him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of rape."

The case started after a 23-year-old Filipino woman known by the pseudonym "Nicole", accused Lance Corporal Daniel Smith of sexually assaulting her while she was drunk on November 1st.

Staff Sergeant Chad Carpentier, Lance Corporal Keith Silkwood and Lance Corporal Dominic Duplantis were accused of complicity.

Nicole's lawyer, Evelyn Ursua, said they felt "very Victorious" about the verdict, even though three of the accused were acquitted.

"The judge said in her decision that the evidence of the prosecution was all credible, only that on the matter of conspiracy we failed to give more to satisfy the standard of the law."

21-one-year old Smith is from St. Louis, Missouri.

He is the first American soldier to be convicted of wrongdoing since the Philippine Senate ordered the shut down of all US bases in the early 1990s. A joint training program was established under the Visiting Forces Agreement in 1998.



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