"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 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 Gibbs is accused of committing took place over a period of five months last year, while Gibbs led the 3rd Platoon of the Army¹s 5th Stryker Brigade in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
Gibbs' platoon was tasked with patrolling small villages in the area to build relationships with an Afghan population wary of the U.S. presence in their country. Instead, prosecutors said Gibbs and a small group of rogue soldiers allegedly plotted to murder civilians and then planted weapons on them so they appeared to be Taliban attackers.
