SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON - A five-person military panel convicted a US soldier Thursday of all charges against him, including the murder of three Afghan civilians for sport, according to a media report. The soldier, Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs, faces a maximum sentence of life in military prison. The verdict was delivered in a military courtroom near Tacoma, a port city in the sate of Washington. Gibbs is accused of terrorising as the leader of what prosecutors call a rogue group of soldiers that targeted civilians in Afghanistan. He is the highest-ranking of five soldiers accused of murdering Afghan villagers, planting weapons on them and cutting body parts off to keep as war trophies. Seven other soldiers were charged with lesser crimes such as intimidating a fellow soldier not to speak out against the platoons alleged killings and rampant illegal drug use, CNN reported. Gibbs pleaded not guilty. The defence and prosecution rested on Wednesday. Sergeant Gibbs had a charisma, he had a 'follow me personality, Maj Robert Stelle, a prosecutor in the case, told the court in closing arguments Wednesday. But it was all a bunch of crap, he had his own mission: murder and depravity. No one died before Sergeant Gibbs showed up, Stelle said. Gibbs took over the 3rd Platoon of the Armys 5th Stryker Brigade in November 2009 in Kandahar province. The platoons previous sergeant had been badly wounded in a roadside bomb attack. Prosecutors described the clean-cut Gibbs as looking like he had walked off a recruiting poster. But the staff sergeant also sported six skull tattoos on his left shin signifying his kills, quoted Darwin and referred to Afghan civilians as 'savages, prosecutors said. According to soldiers who testified at the court-martial, Gibbs discussed staging firefights that he called 'scenarios so that the soldiers could kill civilians and make it look as if they were Taliban fighters. Its not about killing. Its about selling that kill to the command, making them believe its legitimate, Stelle said. Those scenarios, prosecutors said, became reality over a period of five months when the soldiers allegedly plotted to execute civilians. The soldiers killed three villagers in separate incidents, prosecutors said. Gibbs was found guilty of murder in all three slayings. Prosecutors said he supplied an 'off-the-books grenade in one murder and personally executed the other two villagers. In all three incidents, prosecutors claimed, the soldiers lied about first being attacked before firing their weapons. Phillip Stackhouse, Gibbs defence attorney, said other soldiers were framing his client. Three soldiers pleaded guilty to the killings and agreed to testify against Gibbs as part of plea deals.