A U.S.A. Marine charged with murder testified in court Monday that he choked a Filipino unconscious during a fight that started when he discovered that she was a transgender woman.

Philippine government prosecutors charged Pemberton with murder in December, saying there was "probable cause" that he killed Laude in an attack that "was aggravated by treachery, abuse of superior strength and cruelty." Laude had apparently been strangled and drowned in a toilet bowl.

The case reignited a debate over custody of American military personnel accused of crimes. Washington agreed to move him last year from a U.S. warship to the Philippine military's main camp in metropolitan Manila, where he remained under American custody with an outer ring of Filipino guards.

Activists demanded again on Monday that Pemberton be turned over to Philippine custody, saying the current arrangement "is a continuing affront to our national sovereignty."

Marine Lance Cpl. Jairn Michael Rose, who went out with Pemberton that night, acknowledged that the suspect later confided on their ship that he attacked the woman by choking her after discovering that she was transgender when she undressed, according to the prosecutors.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Philippine capital on Tuesday to demand U.S. troops leave their country, just days after Philippine President Noynoy Aquino announced he is "close" to a deal that would open the Philippines to an expanded U.S. military presence. Riot police clashed with approximately 300 demonstrators, who carried signs and banners that read "Obama Not Welcome" and "US Troops Out Now," near the U.S. embassy in Manila.

While the last U.S. base in the country was shut down in 1992, the U.S. currently sends 500 troops to the southern Philippines annually for so-called counter-terrorism purposes, while 6,500 come each year for training, according to the Philippine military. With the cooperation of Aquino, Obama is aggressively pushing to expand this military presence as part of the U.S. military's pivot to Asia to hedge against China. The U.S. and Philippine governments have levied U.S. humanitarian response to Typhoon Haiyan to build support for a deal.