THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220062
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Briefs
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 28 lines
A 20-year-old Marine who was found dead in a car hours after getting into a fight at the Oceanfront Saturday died from a skull fracture and other head injuries, police said Monday.
The Marine likely suffered the injuries after a punch knocked him to the ground, where his head struck either concrete or asphalt, investigators said.
The man who allegedly threw the punch, 21-year-old Christopher R. Carpenter, was charged with manslaughter.
The Marine, Nathan W. Albertson of Texas, got into a disagreement with Carpenter during a weekend party at an Oceanfront hotel, witnesses told police. The two went into the hotel parking lot to settle the argument, according to police spokesman Lou Thurston.
A short time later, Albertson's girlfriend found him lying in the parking lot. She and another man put Albertson in her car, and she drove home.
She told police she couldn't wake her boyfriend, and, because of the Marine's size, she couldn't carry him into her house. So she covered him with a blanket and left him to sleep in the car.
When she went to check on him hours later, he was dead.
KEYWORDS: MANSLAUGHTER HEAD INJURY ARREST U.S. MARINE
CORP. by CNB