A Chicago naval petty officer featured in this month’s Navy Recruiter magazine as a “positive role model” was to appear in Night Bond Court Thursday for his alleged role in the killing of a recruit who police say was carrying his child.
A second man, rejected Navy recruit Michael Sapp, 19, of 329 N. Lorel Ave., was ordered held without bond Thursday for allegedly firing the single bullet that killed the pregnant woman and for robbing her friends at gunpoint Feb. 15.
Naval Petty Officer Weldon May, 26, of 49 E. 36th St., allegedly ordered the killing of Shawnte Graham, 19, according to Pullman Area Police Cmdr. Earl Nevels.
May, who is married to another woman, had asked Graham to abort the child, but she refused, said Assistant State’s Atty. Julie Nelson. Upset, he allegedly approached Sapp.
In exchange, May said he would admit Sapp, who had been turned down once, into the Navy despite his poor vision, Nevels said.
Sapp allegedly entered Graham’s South Side apartment under the guise of a maintenance call, Nevels said. When Sapp saw her reach for a knife, he fatally shot her in the left eye with a .32-caliber handgun, Nevels said.
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty, Nelson said.
Graham joined the Navy in November. She started boot camp in Orlando, Fla., but was discharged three weeks later when her pregnancy was discovered, said Lt. James Morrison, a Navy spokesman. She was not recruited by May, Morrison said.
In Navy Recruiter magazine, May was hailed for placing 42 people in the Navy and visiting 20 schools in the six months he has served as a recruiter. In the two-page article, headlined “Back in the Hood,” the South Side native claimed that his motto is, “Damn the objections, full speed ahead.”