Man who helped Marine go AWOL receives sentence

The 21-year-old who helped fake the disappearance of a Marine lance corporal has been sentenced to 200 hours of community service and has gotten a deferred felony conviction put back on his record.

Boulder District Judge D.D. Mallard also ordered Steven Powers, 21, to pay back the $33,000 cost of the search for the missing Marine.

Powers emerged from Eldorado Canyon, south of Boulder, in late August with a story of how his friend Lance Cpl. Lance Hering fell while they were climbing. When rescuers entered the canyon, they found some blood but no sign of Hering.

A few days later, a video camera captured an image of Hering boarding a bus in Denver. Hering has never been located.