By Karen Frantz
A Far Rockaway man was convicted of murdering his girlfriend by punching and drowning her in the ocean after a fight in 2010, the Queens district attorney said last Thursday.
David Lynch, 33, a National Guardsman and an Iraq war veteran, got into an argument with his girlfriend, Althea Lewis, 45, of Springfield Gardens, while on the beach near the boardwalk and Beach 32nd Street in the early morning of Nov. 23, 2010, DA Richard Brown said.
He was found guilty of second-degree murder in Queens Supreme Court. Justice Kenneth C. Holder set sentencing for April 29, and Lynch faces 25 years to life in prison .
Lynch was accused of punching and biting Lewis around her head and face and throwing her in the water, Brown said trial testimony revealed. He held her head beneath the water’s surface by grabbing her feet and lifting them up, causing her head to submerge, the DA said.
The medical examiner’s report determined Lewis died from blunt force injury to her head, including a nasal fracture and bleeding around her brain and submersion under water.
“As a National Guardsman and an Iraq war veteran, the defendant was trained to defend the weak and protect the innocent,” Brown said. “In this case, he went against everything he was taught and brutally beat and drowned the woman he purportedly loved during an argument.
“His actions have irreparably shattered a family by robbing them of a loved one and, as such, his conviction warrants imposition of a maximum prison sentence to punish him and protect society,” he said.
Lynch was a reservist in the New York National Guard and had served two tours in Iraq prior to Lewis’ death.
The DA said puncture wounds on Lewis’ face were so deep, police first thought she had been shot several times when they found her body, but he said later it was determined that the wounds were caused by Lynch’s U.S. Army ring that he was wearing as he struck her.
Reach reporter Karen Frantz by e-mail at kfrantz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
