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Sailor Dead Over $15 Dispute: Cops

Monday, Jul 6, 2009 | Updated 7:03 AM EST

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Cops say what started with a fight over $15 ended in a death.

It was only $15, but a sailor is dead.

Michael Halpert, 31, of Miami Beach, was found dead after fighting with a Groton man outside a Preston bar, police said.

Halpert and Eduard Rosario, 35, of Groton, were fighting late Friday night over $15 outside of David’s Café’, a bar on Route 12 in Preston, state police told the Day of New London.

Rosario was inside the bar when a man pushed him and accused him of taking the money left on the counter by one of four sailors, he said, according to police reports.

Rosario defended himself, hit the sailor and then left the bar with his estranged girlfriend, The Day reports. The man, who has not been identified, suffered a fractured jaw.

When Rosario got outside, he said, Halpert confronted him, and he pushed him to the ground, but never punched him. Rosario then left the bar and went to his girlfriend’s apartment in Norwich. Less than two hours later, state police arrested him.

Back at the bar, Ledyard police arrived to find Halpert unresponsive on the side of the road. Halpert’s friends told police Rosario punched their friend, knocking him out and leaving him unconscious.

Halpert was rushed to Backus Hospital in Norwich, where he remained in critical condition until he died Wednesday afternoon.

Halpert was an electronics technician assigned to the Naval Submarine Base in Groton.

Rosario has been charged with assault and is being held on a $300,000 bond at Corrigan Correctional Center.