CAMP PENDLETON — A Marine private who confessed to participating in his squad’s killing of an unarmed civilian in Iraq apologized Wednesday in a military court to the victim’s family, his own family and to “my Marine Corps whose highest ideals I have failed to uphold.”

But Pfc. John J. Jodka III, 20, never fully explained how the squad of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman came to kill Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52, who was not the insurgent they were seeking in the village of Hamdania.

Jodka spoke during a hearing before a judge, Lt. Col. David Jones, who was to sentence him later in the day.

Prosecutors charged the squad with kidnapping and murder, alleging members kidnapped Awad when they couldn’t find a known insurgent, took him to a roadside hole, shot him and then tried to cover it up.

As part of a plea deal, Jodka pleaded guilty Oct. 27 to charges of assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and prosecutors dropped other charges including murder and kidnapping. The deal required Jodka to testify.

The closest Jodka came to an explanation for the killing was to say, “I wasn’t able to tell who the man was because it was very dark. There was no moon and I was far away at a distance.”

Asked by his civilian lawyer, Jane Siegel, whether he would have fired if he knew that the target was not Saleh Gawad, a known insurgent, Jodka replied firmly, “Absolutely not.”

Jodka, of Encinitas, Calif., said he agonized for many months before he decided to plead guilty.

“I decided to plead guilty because in the end it was the right thing to do,” Jodka said. “I had to weigh in myself the need for truth as opposed to the loyalty to the squad I had bonded with in Iraq.”

Jodka spoke in an unsworn statement which meant prosecutors could not cross-examine him.

He made references to a video that will be placed in evidence apparently showing his squad clowning around during the playing of a song by rapper 50 Cent. In the video, another defendant asks Jodka to make a statement which has not been revealed.

“I was blowing off steam, just making a comment (for the video) ... trying to start the day off with a little levity,” Jodka said of the tape.

Jones agreed to a defense request to keep the video out of the public courtroom, with the judge viewing segments in his chambers. The prosecutor, Lt. Col. John Baker, also agreed to the request.

Jodka also described how he always wanted to be a Marine, looked up to his fire team leader and squad leader for guidance in combat, and had received little counterinsurgency training. He said his squad’s interpreter quit, leading to a frustrating inability to communicate with Iraqis.

The prosecution called no witnesses at the hearing, but the defense brought in several.

Two sergeants spoke of the importance of loyalty among members of a squad in the field and of the frustrations which have faced Marines trying to apprehend insurgents who plant explosive devices. One said Gawad was cocky because he had been taken in several times but was released for lack of evidence.

But neither sergeant knew Jodka well and they did not give specific testimony about him.

The most emotional witness for the Marine was his mother, Carolyn Jodka, who spoke of her love for her son, of the anguish in seeing him brought to her in the brig in shackles and “to see this conflict between loyalty to his squad and to the core values of the Marines.”