A face full of star-shaped holes matching a GI’s Army ring prove that a National Guardsman mercilessly beat his girlfriend to death on a Far Rockaway beach, a prosecutor said yesterday.
“Her face was bloody and beaten beyond recognition,” said prosecutor Denise Tirino during opening arguments in the trial of David Lynch, 32, who is accused of murder and manslaughter in his girlfriend’s 2010 death.
Althea Lewis, a 45-year-old mother of two, died of blunt-forced injury to her head — a nasal fracture and bleeding around the brain — and submersion in water, according to the medical examiner’s report.
The report also showed that the amount of force it took to make the holes in Lewis’ face “equaled a high-speed crash or a drop from a high building,” Tirino said.
Lynch’s lawyers argued that Lewis died during a rescue attempt by the boyfriend, who said he struggled with Lewis to get her out of the water when it appeared her life was in danger because signs of hypothermia were setting in.
Lynch dragged her by her ankle while her head was submerged, said defense attorney Stephen Somerstein.
“My client’s intent was to rescue and save her,” Somerstein said. “They were deeply in love. It was a failed rescue attempt that went terribly wrong.
Prosecutors intend to present several witnesses, including Lewis’ relatives, to negate Lynch’s written and video statements to police that his girlfriend wanted to “commit suicide because she was sad about her life.”
Lynch, a Chemical Operations Specialist who served three tours in Iraq during his nine years of active duty, faces life in prison for murder and manslaughter charges.