SAN DIEGO -- In the biggest such case in decades at the Marine boot camp here, former Marine Corps drill instructor Sgt. Jerrod Glass was convicted Wednesday by a military jury on eight counts related to the abuse of recruits.
Glass, 25, who was charged with kicking, punching, slapping and ridiculing the young men, could face 9 1/2 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.
Jurors indicated, however, that they did not believe dozens of specific allegations in which the only witnesses were the alleged victims themselves. That could count in Glass' favor when he is sentenced.
In a four-day trial, nearly two dozen former recruits testified that Glass abused them for minor mistakes during training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego and at Camp Pendleton.
After convicting Glass, the Marine jury of three officers and three senior staff noncommissioned officers heard testimony concerning his sentence. The jurors will begin deliberations on sentencing today.
The verdict and the sentence then will be reviewed by Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commanding general of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.
A conviction of this scope is rare. In the last three years, the recruit depot, which has nearly 500 drill instructors, has seen 44 drill instructors charged with misconduct toward recruits. Of those 44, only two before Glass went to court-martial; others were punished or admonished through an administrative process.
Glass was convicted on two counts of violating orders, two counts of cruelty and maltreatment, three counts of destroying the recruits' private property and one count of assault.
He stood ramrod straight as the verdict was announced. His mother, Barbara, and father, Jerry, had tears in their eyes.
Mother and son had embraced just before the verdict was read. Immediately afterward, Glass' father, a retired sheriff's deputy from Arizona, patted his son on the shoulder. Several of Glass' Marine friends joined the family in the courtroom.
Glass spent two tours in Iraq as a dog handler before attending drill instructor school, from which he graduated with honors. The abuses occurred shortly after his graduation, during his first two months as a drill instructor. They came to light only after he beat a 19-year-old over the head with a tent pole because the recruit could not remember the combination to his foot locker.
