Jury gives Marine drill instructor six months in brig for abusing recruits

SAN DIEGO -- A former Marine drill instructor was sentenced by a military jury Thursday to six months in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge for abusing Marine recruits.

The sentence also reduced Sgt. Jerrold Glass’ rank to private.

Glass, who was convicted Wednesday of eight counts related to the abuse of two dozen recruits, could have received 9 1/2 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

Some of the young Marines who testified about the abuse attended the sentencing and spoke to reporters in support of him.

“Sgt. Glass is a good D.I.,” said Pfc. Christopher Longo, who testified that he was struck and forced to drink water until he vomited. “He just lost his head. Everybody makes mistakes. He doesn’t deserve this.”

Pfc. Bradley Montgomery, who testified that Glass assaulted him at Camp Pendleton, called the sentence “ridiculous.”

“He’s an excellent Marine,” Montgomery said. Asked what he would tell a friend who would have Glass as a drill instructor if he enlisted, Montgomery said, “Sign the paper. He’ll make you into a good Marine.”

The case is the biggest of its kind in decades at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot here, which trains 20,000 young men a year. Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, commanding general of the depot, will now review the verdict and sentence. She has the power to reduce them.

Glass, 25, was convicted of punching, slapping and ridiculing recruits and destroying their personal property -- all in violation of Marine Corps rules.

He was the least experienced of the four drill instructors assigned to train platoon 2167, and, by Marine tradition, he was assigned as the “kill hat,” or disciplinarian.

After the sentencing, Glass’ parents told reporters that they remained convinced their son was only following orders from senior drill instructors

“If the Marine Corps wants to tell the public this doesn’t go on every day, they either have their head in the sand or they’re not being honest with the American public,” said Jerry Glass, a retired sheriff’s deputy from Arizona.

“My son is my hero; he’ll always be my hero,” he said.

Glass’ mother, Barbara, who cried while the sentence was announced, said: “I still believe in my son 100%. I still believe he didn’t do anything he wasn’t instructed to do.”

Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence Glass to two years in the brig and a bad-conduct discharge.

Defense attorneys had asked jurors to sentence Glass to 60 days of restricted duty but allow him to remain in the Marine Corps as a dog handler.

The jury deliberated for two hours before announcing the sentence.

Before the allegations of abuse surfaced, Glass was on a fast track.

An honor graduate of the drill instructor school, he had been selected to become a staff sergeant.

He had volunteered twice for duty in Iraq as a dog handler and was a high achiever in every school and training regimen.

The weeklong trial illuminated the complex emotions that drill instructors engender in their recruits.

Some of the young Marines testified that they assumed that being hit and kicked was an accepted part of boot camp. Others said they did not report the abuse because they did not want to get Glass in trouble.

The abuse was reported to superiors only after Glass, in front of most of the platoon, beat a recruit over the head with a tent pole several dozen times when he could not remember the combination to his foot locker.

But even that recruit testified he did not report the incident because “I didn’t want to lose my D.I.” The two senior drill instructors face a court-martial with a maximum sentence of a year in the brig. Another drill instructor had his rank reduced and was removed from working with recruits.

Before they began deliberations, jurors asked whether Glass had ever been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Defense attorneys said Glass was never evaluated for PTSD -- despite a Marine policy of screening Marines returning from Iraq.

tony.perry@latimes.com