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LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A defense expert says a Pennsylvania college freshman who prosecutors say was beaten and strangled by her boyfriend in her dorm room actually died from a "massive nosebleed" caused by a previous fracture of her eye socket.
The testimony of Dr. C. Peter Speth came Thursday in the Lancaster County trial of Gregorio Orrostieta (or-oh-stee-AY'-tah).
His attorney previously told jurors that Orrostieta didn't mean to kill Millersville University student Karlie Hall and merely pushed her during a drunken argument in February 2015.
Dr. Wayne Ross says the 18-year-old woman was beaten and strangled. Ross is a pathologist who was called by prosecutors.
But Speth says the nosebleed caused blood in Hall's lungs, which killed her. He says bruising was caused by blood clots settling in, not being beaten or strangled.
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