CAMP PENDLETON - A jury this morning will resume deliberating whether the bayonet slaying of an Iraqi army private last year was self-defense or is a case of outright murder committed by an enraged Marine.

The three Marine officers and five enlisted men who heard the eight-day trial against Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes deliberated for a little more than three hours Wednesday afternoon before being sent home for the night by the military judge, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Meeks. Before they left, they watched a defense attorney dangle a bloody glove and a prosecution lawyer jab a dummy with a bayonet.

In closing arguments, Capt. Brett Miner told jurors that the 22-year-old Holmes' story - that he killed Pvt. Munther Jasem Muhammed Hassin out of fear for his own life - is simply a lie.

"His story about self-defense is not believable in this case," Miner said, pointing out that Holmes stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds while Hassin was 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighing 124 pounds.

"Is it reasonable to believe that Private Hassin was going to inflict death on Lance Corporal Holmes? It is not," Miner said.

Holmes' lead attorney, Steve Cook of Irvine, told jurors the prosecution failed to prove the allegation of unpremeditated murder beyond a reasonable doubt, the standard required to reach a conviction.

Holmes, who did not testify during the trial, told investigators that he and the Iraqi began fighting about 5:45 a.m. as the two stood guard together in an elevated post just outside Camp Fallujah, Iraq, on Dec. 31, 2006.

He told the investigators he grabbed his bayonet from his flak jacket and stabbed the Iraqi because he believed the man was reaching for an AK-47 and would shoot him.

The fight began, Holmes told the investigators and his attorneys have said, because the Iraqi refused to put out a cigarette and earlier was using an illuminated cell phone, both of which exposed the two to possible sniper attack.

Cook said the threat of snipers was real and that Holmes' aggression toward the Iraqi was understandable.

"Witness after witness talked about the danger at night," Cook said, referring to past attacks on the observation post. "When someone illuminates their position with a cigarette and a cell phone, you've got a real threat."

In his closing arguments, Miner had earlier called that assertion a "red herring" because it suggested the Iraqi, who stood close to Holmes in the guard station, would have been putting himself at risk.

"If it wasn't self-defense, what was it?" Cook countered. "When the Iraqi refused to put out his cigarette, Lance Corporal Holmes reached across to knock it out of his hands. That's when the struggle began."

Miner said that while prosecutors did not have a clear motive for the killing, the jury should not believe anything other than that Holmes murdered the Iraqi, whom witnesses had described during the trial as a calm and peaceful individual.

An autopsy showed that Hassin suffered 17 stab wounds, 26 slashes and one deep cut that nearly sliced his nose from his face. Some of the wounds nearly severed the man's spine, the autopsy showed.

"He stabbed and he stabbed and he stabbed and he stabbed the Iraqi in the back," Miner said. "Don't let the accused get away with murder."

Holmes also is charged with giving investigators a false official statement, an accusation based on an alleged lie to investigators about firing the Iraqi's AK-47 rifle after the man was dead.

While prosecutors assert Holmes fired it to support his false version of events, the Marine contends there was a second Iraqi who came into the guard post and it was that man who fired the rifle. The statement in which Holmes said he fired the rifle came after more than 20 hours of interrogation when his client was tired, confused and overwrought, Cook said.

If he had fired the weapon, Cook asked why there were no blood stains on the rifle, using Holmes' blood-stained glove to underscore his point.

Miner also used a bit of theatrics in his rebuttal arguments, at one point using a bayonet to stab a dummy in the back to demonstrate the prosecution's assertion that an enraged Holmes "mauled" Hassin.

As it deliberates, Miner cautioned the jury that it should not give Holmes the benefit of the doubt simply because he is a fellow Marine.

"Don't fall into the Marine loyalty trap," he said. "Do not waver in holding Lance Corporal Holmes accountable for his actions."

Holmes, a Marine reservist from Michigan's 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, was on his first deployment to Iraq when the killing took place.

The jury also was given an instruction allowing them to find Holmes guilty of a lesser offense such as aggravated assault.

Holmes is the second U.S. troop charged with killing of an Iraqi soldier since the Iraqi army was re-established in late 2003. In 2004, Army Pvt. Federico Daniel Merida was convicted of killing an Iraqi soldier after the two had sex. Merida was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.

- Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com.