Marine Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz told a military court Friday that Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich shot the five men while they stood beside a taxi they had been riding in Haditha, Iraq, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Dela Cruz said Wuterich then walked over to the men and continued to shoot their bodies.

"He went to each and shot at them," Dela Cruz said. "The muzzle (of his rifle) was about a foot from their upper torsos."

Dela Cruz, who previously admitted to participating in the shootings and urinating on one of the corpses, was spared from prosecution in exchange for his testimony.

He testified Wuterich told him hours after the killings that he should tell superior officers the five men were killed while fleeing from the scene of a roadside bomb.

Wuterich is one of four Marines accused of murder in the Haditha killings. The hearing is designed to determine whether the case should go to court-martial, be dismissed, or handled through an administrative process.