opportunity to be with his now-3-year-old son again . `` He has a long time to reflect on his life , what he has done and what he wants to do in the future , '' Stackhouse said . Gibbs is the highest ranking of five soldiers charged with being part of a rogue `` kill squad '' that targeted civilians . Another seven soldiers also were charged with lesser crimes including abusing drugs , keeping `` off the books '' weapons and intimidating a fellow soldier not to speak out against the platoon 's alleged killings . Gibbs had pleaded not guilty . A prosecutor described Gibbs as a `` recruiting poster '' soldier . But the tall , clean-cut Gibbs and the `` kill squad '' he was convicted of leading turned into a public-relations nightmare for the military . `` Sgt. Gibbs had a charisma , he had a ` follow me ' personality , '' Maj. Robert Stelle , a prosecutor in the case , told the court in closing arguments Wednesday . `` But it was all a bunch of crap , he had his own mission : murder and depravity . '' The murders
Joint Base Lewis-McChord , Washington -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs has been sentenced to life in military prison with eligibility for parole in 10 years . A military court-martial Thursday found Gibbs guilty of murdering three Afghan civilians , illegally cutting off pieces of their corpses to keep as `` souvenirs '' and planting weapons to make the men appear as if they were Taliban fighters killed in legitimate firefights . He was reduced in rank to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits . Whatever sentence Gibbs serves will be reduced by the 547 days he has already spent in prison . `` He said they were all dirty savages , '' prosecutor Maj. Andre Leblanc said at Gibbs ' sentencing hearing . `` He is the savage , not the innocent Afghans he murdered . It is monstrous . What kind of savagery does it take to do this ? To cut a finger off a victim and show it to people ? This is a savage being '' Gibbs ' attorney , Phillip Stackhouse , had asked the court for a sentence of life with parole so Gibbs would have the