A U.S. Marine is on his way to jail for killing a transgender woman in the Philippines.

A Philippine court today found Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton guilty of killing the woman last year outside a U.S. Navy base near Manila.

Pemberton is to serve at least six and as many as 12 years in jail.

The court also ordered him to pay the woman's family more than 95-thousand dollars.

Pemberton, who is from New Bedford, can appeal the verdict and the sentence.

Pemberton had earlier admitted to choking, but not killing the transgender woman.

He told the court he acted in self-defense after realizing that he was receiving oral sex from a man, not a woman.

The case has created a debate over the presence of American troops in the Philippines.

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