Oceanside Marine’s killer gets 7½ years

The family of Greg Buckley Jr., the Oceanside Marine who was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2012, was outraged to learn last week that the Afghan youth accused of his murder was sentenced to just seven years and six months in jail.

Ainuddin Khudairaham was found guilty by an Afghan court of shooting Buckley and two other Marines, Scott Dickinson and Richard Rivera Jr., with an AK-47 on Aug. 10, 2012, but was given a minimum sentence because he was under 18 at the time of the attack. The Buckley family had fought for two years to have Khudairaham extradited and tried in the U.S., then claimed they were not informed when his trial began in Afghanistan. They also said that the media received news of the sentencing before they did.

The family’s attorney, Michael Bowe, sent a scathing letter to Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, accusing the corps of withholding information while the case was being investigated and then releasing news of the conviction as a “publicity stunt.”

“The Marine Corps did not release the information related to the 2012 [Forward Operating Base] Delhi shooting as a ‘publicity stunt,’” Col. Dave Lapan, the Marines’ acting director of public affairs, said in a statement. “The information was released in response to queries received from several media outlets.”

Bowe claimed that attorneys for the Marine Corps told members of the Buckley family on July 21 that no date had been scheduled for Khudairaham’s trial, yet the trial began the next day. The conviction was handed down a day later, on July 23. Family members said they were not notified directly, and a press release was issued on July 25.

“We are outraged,” said Buckley’s aunt, Mary Liz Grossoto.