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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii — A Schofield Barracks soldier was convicted Tuesday of premeditated murder in the death of a fellow soldier.

Spc. Jeffery White, 22, was found guilty by a court-martial panel of killing Spc. Felicia LaDuke, 22, in October 2005 at Mokuleia Beach.

Officials had said LaDuke had been seeking child support from White for their son, who was 20 months old at the time. White was married and had another child with his wife, the officials said.

The sentencing phase of the court-martial was slated to begin Wednesday at the Army courthouse at Wheeler Army Airfield. White faces a possible mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison with parole. The maximum sentence for premeditated murder is life without the possibility of parole.

Military police found LaDuke dead at the beach.

According to an affidavit, White confessed to witnesses that he strangled LaDuke inside her car, pushed her out and then ran over her body near Kaena Point.

An Oahu grand jury indicted White on second-degree murder charges but city prosecutors turned the case over to the military after the Army requested jurisdiction.

LaDuke, a motor transport operator with the 25th Transportation Company, 524th Combat Support Battalion, returned from Iraq in March 2005, the same month White, a truck driver with Company A, 325th Brigade Support Battalion, returned from Afghanistan, the military said.