(CBS/AP) An investigating officer has recommended that the Marine at the center of the biggest prosecution of U.S. troops in the Iraq war should not stand trial on murder charges, a defense attorney said Thursday.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, 27, of Meriden, Conn., is charged with the unpremeditated murder of 17 Iraqis in Haditha in 2005. The former squad leader allegedly directed his Marines in an assault that left 24 men, women and children dead.

Lt. Col. Paul Ware recommended that Wuterich should be tried for the lesser offense of negligent homicide in the deaths of five children and two women, said Neal Puckett, Wuterich's attorney.

Ware reviewed evidence against Wuterich in a preliminary hearing known as an Article 32. His recommendation is nonbinding, and the final decision about whether Wuterich should stand trial rests with Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the commanding general overseeing the case.

If Mattis accepts the recommendation for Wuterich and a similar one for one of his corporals, which appears likely based on past practice, no one will face murder charges in the biggest case involving civilian deaths in Iraq.

"We're both very pleased and also not surprised, given how the other cases have gone," Puckett said. "There has never been any inkling that any of these Marines lost control or went on a rampage."

In an interview earlier this year, Wuterich told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that he’s not a murderer.

"Everyone visualizes me as a monster -- a baby killer, cold-blooded, that sort of thing. And, it's, you know, that’s not accurate,” he said.

Wuterich said he does not believe 24 dead civilians equates to a massacre.

"No, absolutely not ... A massacre in my mind, by definition, is a large group of people being executed, being killed for absolutely no reason and that’s absolutely not what happened here," he said.

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Read the entire interview here.

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Ware also recommended dropping charges of making a false official statement and telling a squadmate to do the same, Puckett said.

If tried and convicted of murder, Wuterich would face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Puckett said negligent homicide carries a maximum sentence of three years for each count.

A Marine Corps spokesman, Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, declined to comment.

Of four enlisted Marines initially accused in the case, charges have been dropped against Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz and Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt. Ware has also recommended charges be dismissed against the third alleged shooter, Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum.

Charges also have been dropped against two of four officers accused of dereliction of duty for failing to investigate the incident. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the highest-ranking of the officers, has been recommended for a court-martial, but Mattis has made no final decision. Another officer, 1st Lt. Andrew A. Grayson, is scheduled for a pretrial hearing.

The killings occurred Nov. 19, 2005, after a roadside bomb hit a Marine convoy, killing the driver of a Humvee and wounding two other Marines. Wuterich and Dela Cruz allegedly shot five men by a car at the scene, then Wuterich ordered his men into several houses, where they cleared rooms with grenades and gunfire killing unarmed civilians in the process.

Haditha is in Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni resistance, where, among the residents, anti-American passions run high. In the months before Wuterich’s unit arrived, other Marines were suffering some of the heaviest causalities in all of Iraq, including the bombing of an armored vehicle that killed 14 Marines. Days before that, six Marines in Haditha were ambushed, tortured and killed, Pelley reported.

As Wuterich’s battalion moved in, it discovered the dilemma that defines Iraq. In Haditha, the population is generally hostile to Americans, but only some are armed fighters. The fighters blend in. You can’t pick them out unless they’re shooting at you.

Wuterich told Pelley that he ordered his men to throw a grenade into the houses out of necessity.

"At that point, you can’t hesitate to make a decision,” he said. “Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men.”

"But when you roll a grenade in a room through the crack in the door, that’s not positive identification, that’s taking a chance on anything that could be behind that door," Pelley pressed.

"Well that’s what we do. That’s how our training goes," Wuterich said.

At his preliminary hearing, Wuterich said he regretted the loss of civilian life in Haditha, but said he believed he was coming under fire from the homes and so was operating within military combat rules when he ordered his men to assault the buildings.

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