GALLOWAY, OHIO Va. judge charges sailor with murder

The sailor is accused of killing a fellow sailor who was his roommate.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) -- A sailor accused of killing his roommate, then taking her body to Massachusetts and burning it on a charcoal pyre, described himself as a "monster" in a letter of confession sent to a Navy friend.
The letter was part of the testimony in a preliminary hearing Thursday for Jarred D. Swartzmiller, 22, who surrendered May 20 to authorities in Columbus, Ohio. He had gone home to his family in nearby Galloway, Ohio, during a nationwide search by authorities.
A friend also testified that Swartzmiller told him he was in a daze from alcohol and a prescription painkiller when he wrapped a belt around his hand and hit 21-year-old Laura Skinner in the head.
Skinner's partially charred body was found May 19 in Hatfield, Mass., about 200 miles from the Canada border. Skinner and Swartzmiller had been declared missing since authorities discovered a blood-splattered crime scene in the apartment they shared with a third sailor.
"I didn't want Laura to suffer," Swartzmiller wrote in the letter, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey L. Bryant III. "I wanted her to go quickly."
The multipage letter carries a postmark from Springfield, Mass., Bryant told the judge.
"It is a letter in his own handwriting that is, in essence, a confession to the murder of Laura Skinner," Bryant said.
First-degree murder charge
General District Judge Gene Woolard called the evidence "overwhelming" and sent charges of first-degree murder and malicious wounding against Swartzmiller to the grand jury. He also set a trial date for Nov. 30.
Police think Swartzmiller went into a rage early on May 17, battering Skinner during an argument. They said he tried to hide the crime by driving Skinner's body out of state, wrapping it in a sleeping bag and burning it.
Skinner, Swartzmiller and their roommate, Paula Burd, were shipmates on the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Skinner had wed four days before she was slain.
Burd testified that Skinner and Swartzmiller argued frequently and that during one confrontation, Skinner called Swartzmiller "a stupid retard, or something."
Bryant said Swartzmiller referred to that remark in the letter he sent to his best friend in the Navy, Robert Lang, who turned it over to authorities.
Another witness
Another of Swartzmiller's Navy friends, Martin J. Rosenberg, testified that he visited Swartzmiller at the Virginia Beach jail three times. He said Swartzmiller told him that he had an argument with Skinner on the night of her death that "turned physical."
Rosenberg said Swartzmiller told him he wrapped a belt around his hand and bashed his hand into Skinner's head. Swartzmiller said he passed out because of the blood and regained consciousness just in time to see Skinner take a last breath, Rosenberg said.
Swartzmiller said he was in a daze after drinking alcohol and taking Percoset, Rosenberg said.
Police Detective Sean R. Coerse testified that in Swartzmiller's truck he found a Wal-Mart receipt, dated the day of Skinner's death, showing the purchase of charcoal and lighter fluid.