A Navy corpsman assigned to the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, pleaded not guilty on Aug. 23 to allegations that he stabbed and killed a D.C. man.
Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Collin J. Potter was indicted on Aug. 20 with charges of kidnapping, felony murder while armed and first degree sexual abuse while armed, among other charges, according to a court record filed with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
Potter has another hearing scheduled at the D.C. Superior Court for Oct. 25.
The government alleges Potter stabbed 36-year-old D.C. businessman Vongell Lugo inside an apartment building on Wisconsin Avenue, northwest Washington, D.C., early on Jan. 6.
Navy Times reported that D.C. police responded to a call around 4:14 a.m Jan. 6 at a residential building and found Lugo in a hallway with multiple stab wounds.
NBC News reported that police had found Potter naked standing over Lugo who had been stabbed nearly 40 times.
Potter told police that his girlfriend had committed suicide and he referred to the victim as a she when asking if Lugo was still alive, according to NBC News.
Potter also told police that he had used marijuana and alcohol, and asked police to kill him, according to NBC News.
He also told investigators he performed oral sex on a man, according to NBC News.
A woman who lived in the same hallway where the alleged murder took place told the government that on the night of the incident she heard a man’s voice using “perverse, explosive, and suggestive language” describing a woman’s anatomy, according to a court document.
She also told the government she heard what sounded like someone “gurgling with blood,” according to the court document. The woman did not witness the alleged murder.
Potter is assigned to The Basic School aboard Quantico, Virginia. First Lt. Sam Stephenson, a Marine spokesman, told Marine Corps Times that the Corps was aware of Potter’s indictment, but could not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.
Shawn Snow is the senior reporter for Marine Corps Times and a Marine Corps veteran.
