Marine guilty of murdering Ohio colleague

Prosecutors had agreed not to seek the death penalty for Cesar Laurean, 23, so authorities in Mexico would send him back to face a U.S. trial. GERRY BROOME / AP Enlarge

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach of Vandalia, Ohio, was pregnant when she was killed in 2007. AP Enlarge

Mary Lauterbach, mother of the pregnant Marine who was slain, told the killer he will have time now to think about his failures. JIM R. BOUNDS / AP Enlarge

GOLDSBORO, N.C. - A former Marine was convicted of murder Monday in the death of a pregnant colleague who accused him of rape.

Cesar Laurean, 23, of Las Vegas, was found guilty of killing Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, of Vandalia, Ohio, in December, 2007.

The two were assigned to the same logistics unit at Camp Lejeune, the base in Jacksonville that is home to about 50,000 Marines.

The trial was moved because of pretrial publicity.

The former Marine corporal was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for first-degree murder.

The victim's mother, Mary Lauterbach, read a statement before the judge imposed the sentence.

She told Laurean to remember the pain in his mother's face and to think of the daughter who will have to live with the shame of a father who is a killer.

"Now you will have time to think about your shame, time to think about your failures," Mary Lauterbach said. "There are many people out there who will die today, people who would love to have the time that God has given you."

One juror said the panel didn't believe the theory presented by defense lawyer Dick McNeil that someone else, perhaps Laurean's enraged wife, could have killed Corporal Lauterbach with a swing of a crowbar that fractured the victim's skull.

Laurean's father, Salvador, and sister Blanca said they wished more of the testimony would have explained the problems the ex-Marine had with Corporal Lauterbach, whom the higher-ranking Laurean was ordered by superiors to help shape up.

"He's a nice, nice guy," Blanca Laurean said. "He doesn't deserve everyone thinking he's the worst man in the world. He's not."

Mr. McNeil said Laurean would appeal his conviction.

Laurean faced other charges of robbing Lauterbach of her bank ATM card, and of theft and attempted fraud for allegedly trying to use it to withdraw cash.

He was found not guilty of robbery, but Laurean was convicted on the fraud and theft charges.

The victim's rape accusation never was corroborated, but a Marine buddy testified Laurean told him the sex was consensual.

A DNA test would prove later that Laurean was not the father of Corporal Lauterbach's child. She was seven months pregnant when she died.

Even if the rape accusation was false, the married father of a young child faced having his career derailed for committing adultery with a subordinate, District Attorney Dewey Hudson said.

Laurean had been ordered to stay away from Corporal Lauterbach, and his Marine superiors said a hearing on the rape allegation was approaching.

Laurean, who was born in Mexico, fled his home and was on the run until police arrested him there in April, 2009.

Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty so Mexican authorities would return Laurean, who was born in Guadalajara, to the United States.