Government to seek death penalty in student murder case

<p>A U.S. Air Force military police officer charged with murder in the death of a pregnant student from Georgia Southern University in 2003 may face the death penalty.</p><p>Assistant U.S. Attorney John Lynch filed notice Thursday in Columbus seeking the death penalty against Michael Antonio Natson.</p><p>He is charged in the death of Ardena Carter between September and December 2003. A grand jury indicted the 24-year-old Natson in June on charges of murder and feticide.</p><p>Lynch said in the filing that the government will attempt to prove that Carter's death was premeditated.</p><p>Carter was a 23-year-old student at Georgia Southern in Statesboro. She was shot to death with a pistol.</p><p>Hunters found her skeletal remains on a remote area of Fort Benning, about four miles west of Cusseta on Dec. 16, 2003. Her body was found in woods at Fort Benning. The case is being handled in federal court because the alleged crime happened on a U.S. military reservation.</p><p>Carter _ who was studying to be a teacher _ was last seen alive by friends who dropped her off at her home on Sept. 11, 2003.</p><p>Natson, also from Statesboro, was on active duty at Fort Benning at the time of her death. He was discharged from the Army and joined the U.S. Air Force. He was assigned to Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, at the time he was charged in the death.</p><p>Ken Brown of the university's police department said evidence suggests that Carter and Natson were romantically involved at the time of the shooting.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cd9ab4)</p>