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South Jersey Man, 29, Charged With Manslaughter After Victim Dies From Punch In Jaw

A South Jersey man died on Sunday of head injuries he sustained in a fight in January, authorities said. 

Camden County Correctional Facility

Camden County Correctional Facility

Photo Credit: Camden County

James Bates, 47, of Chesilhurst had been punched in the jaw, according to Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill S. Mayer and Chesilhurst Police Chief Wendell Smith.

Bates' attacker, Alexander Toussaint, 29, of Chesilhurst, has been newly charged with first-degree manslaughter and third-degree aggravated assault, Mayer and Smith said. 

Touissant had lived in a nearby residential center for mentally disturbed people, Smith said. 

Police officers responded to the 600 block of Edwards Ave. in Chesilhurst on Jan. 28 about 4:40 p.m. on a report of an injured man. They found Bates unconscious on the ground, authorities said.

Bates was taken to an area hospital where he remained until he died on Sunday.

Detectives uncovered surveillance footage that captured the clash.

Toussaint is shown hitting Bates in the jaw, causing Bates to fall to the ground where he lay until patrol officers arrived, Mayer and Smith said.

On Monday, a medical examiner determined Bates’s cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head and his manner of death as homicide, they said. 

Toussaint was being held at the Camden County Correctional Facility.

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