MANILA — A Philippine court convicted a United States Marine of homicide on Tuesday in the killing of a transgender woman last year.

The Marine, Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton, 20, had been charged with murder, but the court convicted him of the lesser offense of homicide and sentenced him to six to 12 years in prison, a court clerk said. He was found guilty of killing Jennifer Laude, 26, of the Philippines, whom he had met in a nightclub in Olongapo City, about 100 miles north of Manila, in October 2014.

The court said that it had reduced the charge from murder because the element of “treachery” was not present in the killing. In addition to his prison sentence, Lance Corporal Pemberton was ordered to pay the equivalent of about $100,000 to Ms. Laude’s family, most of it as compensation for income lost because of her death.

Attorneys for both sides questioned the sentence, saying that by law, the sentence for homicide is six to 10 years. Harry Roque, an attorney for the victim’s family, said that Lance Corporal Pemberton could be eligible for parole in three years.