Camp Pendleton, Calif. ? A Marine corporal pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and murdering an unarmed Iraqi civilian last year, and said he and other servicemen went after him because they were “sick and tired of getting bombed.”

Cpl. Trent Thomas, 25, is the first of seven Marines and a Navy medic accused in the case to plead guilty to murder. Four others have pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for their testimony.

Prosecutors said the eight-man squad kidnapped 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania, took him to a roadside hole and shot him to death, placing an AK-47 and shovel by his body to make it look as if he was an insurgent caught planting a bomb.

Thomas, a St. Louis-area native who was on his second tour of Iraq during the April 26 killing, also gave a chilling testimony about the slaying as part of his plea deal. The group planned to go after a known insurgent, he said, but was compromised and went to a neighboring house instead.

Thomas is to be sentenced in the coming weeks. He faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though under his plea agreement he is likely to receive a more lenient sentence.