A 22-year-old Schofield soldier will be sentenced today for the murder of Spc. Felicia LaDuke, an Iraq war veteran and mother of his son.

Spc. Jeffery White of Houston was found guilty of premeditated murder yesterday by a seven-member court-martial panel. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the mandatory minimum sentence for premeditated murder is life with parole.

White will receive a life sentence; the only question is with or without parole, said 25th Infantry Division spokesman Kendrick Washington. White will be sentenced at 1 p.m. at Wheeler Army Airfield.

According to trial testimony, White was involved in a bitter child custody fight with LaDuke and decided to kill her to avoid paying child support.

"The accused was fed up with her, so he killed her," prosecutor Capt. David Clark said in opening statements.

LaDuke was strangled at Mokule'ia Beach in October 2005.

White's attorney, Maj. John Hyatt, had said the case would come down to the testimony of two acquaintances of White's: Brian Cook and Spc. Alicia Williams.

A Honolulu police officer said Cook showed authorities the area where LaDuke's body was found, and that Cook said White had confessed to him and showed him the spot.

Hyatt argued that the jury should be "suspicious" of the two because Williams was having an affair with White, and Cook at one time harbored interest in LaDuke, who rebuffed him.

An O'ahu 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.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.