Fort Hood soldier in custody in 2019 killing
He’s charged in death of Cheatham
A Fort Hood soldier has been arrested in the 2019 homicide of 32-year-old Chelsea Cheatham in Killeen, Texas, according to police.
Cory Grafton, 20, was taken into custody Tuesday on charges of first-degree felony murder. He was at the scene when Cheatham was killed, and his DNA matched what was found on Cheatham, according to a Killeen Police Department news release Wednesday.
He was being held on $1 million bond, according to Bell County Jail.
Grafton is an active-duty soldier assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Brautigam told USA TODAY. Brautigam said the unit was cooperating with the Killeen Police Department and the Texas Rangers.
Cheatham was killed at a Days Inn on the Central Texas Expressway in June 2019. Police were sent to the hotel on reports of a woman who was unconscious and not breathing. Officers tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead, police said. An autopsy recently determined the manner of death was a homicide. Justice of the Peace Daryl Peters ordered the autopsy at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas.
Fort Hood, the U.S. Army’s largest military installation, has the highest rates of violent crime in the U.S. Army, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy told Congress in July. Fort Hood and Killeen also were the sites of three mass shootings in the past 30 years.
The Central Texas post is now at the center of military, congressional and independent investigations into its leaders and several of its soldiers’ deaths. Two of the cases listed in the congressional investigation involve reports of sexual assault and harassment, which sparked a separate investigation into how the post handles claims of sexual misconduct.
The U.S. Army announced in early September that Fort Hood’s top commander, Maj. Gen. Scott Efflandt, would be stepping down from his position to serve as the deputy commanding general of the base in Killeen. Data collected by The New York Times shows that more troops from Fort Hood have died by homicides on and off the post since 2016 than have died in combat zones. The Times found 159 noncombat deaths of Fort Hood soldiers since the beginning of 2016, which included seven homicides and 71 suicides. The national spotlight on Fort Hood began to intensify this year after the disappearance of 20-year-old Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen of Houston. In April, Guillen vanished at the base, and her remains were found three months later.
Army officials identified 20-year-old Spc. Aaron David Robinson of Illinois as a suspect in her disappearance and killing. Last month, U.S. Army officials announced Guillen died “in the line of duty.” She was one of at least four soldiers who died by homicide in 2020.