SC Marine sentenced for stealing from Iraq bases

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge in South Carolina has sentenced a former U.S. Marine Corps gunnery sergeant to a year and a half in prison for conspiring to steal generators from Marine Corps bases in Iraq in 2008

U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles said a federal judge in Greenville also ordered 40-year-old Eric Scott Hamilton of Carrollton, Ga., to pay about $125,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Defense.

Nettles says Hamilton pleaded guilty in August to two counts of conspiracy to steal public property. Prosecutors say he admitted helping Iraqi contractors steal 55 generators from storage yards at Camp Fallujah and Camp Ramadi.

Nettles says Hamilton sent home about $43,000 in cash by hiding it among American flags in foot lockers that he mailed from Iraq to his wife.