Death penalty off table in U.S. Marine’s case

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- A prosecutor offered a deal Thursday to Mexican authorities and a Marine wanted in the killing a 20-year-old pregnant colleague: If he is arrested in Mexico, he will not face lethal injection in North Carolina.

Investigators think Cpl. Cesar Laurean has fled to his native Mexico, which refuses to send anyone back to the United States unless provided assurances the suspects will not face the death penalty.

"The choices presented to me were either a possible life without parole sentence, or the defendant living in Mexico the rest of his life and never brought to trial," Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said in announcing an indictment charging Laurean, 21, with first-degree murder.

The remains of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, were found with those of her fetus earlier this month in a fire pit in Laurean's backyard.

Lauterbach, who had accused Laurean of rape in May, had been missing since mid-December. Military investigators are working to identify the father of Lauterbach's unborn child, Hudson said.

Laurean fled Jacksonville in early January and left a note for his wife, Christina. The letter said that Lauterbach slit her own throat with a knife, and that he buried her in the woods near their home.

Detectives have rejected his story, and an autopsy found that Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Authorities have determined that Lauterbach's child had not been born at the time of her death, Hudson said, and prosecutors can charge Laurean with one count of murder only.

The grand jury charged Laurean with robbery with a dangerous weapon and a charge involving an unauthorized financial transaction involving card theft. The indictment said Laurean forced Lauterbach to remove money from her bank account Dec. 14, the day authorities think he killed her.

Laurean is accused of trying to use Lauterbach's ATM card on Christmas Eve and was charged with attempted card fraud and obtaining property by false pretenses.