Article published July 10, 2009
Toledo native, 21, charged in slaying of fellow soldier
Army private also accused of credit-card fraud
By FLORENCE DETHY
BLADE STAFF WRITER
A 21-year-old Toledo native was charged this week in Georgia with the murder of a fellow soldier.
Pvt. Sylvester Horton grew up on Toledo’s Belmont Avenue, and longtime neighborhood residents said yesterday that they were shocked to hear he was arrested on a murder charge — or arrested at all.
“I thought he was gonna’ go do something with himself,” said Douglas Colman, 24, who has lived across the street from the Hortons’ residence all his life.
“He cut people’s grass, never stole no bikes, never sold no drugs.”
Now prosecutors have charged Private Horton, a 3rd Infantry Division soldier stationed at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Ga., with the murder of Spec. Necco McCraw, 21, who was assigned to the same unit as Private Horton.
The men had known each other for more than two years and at one time were roommates, Brig. Gen. Tom Vandal said yesterday.
At the same news conference, Savannah-Chatham Police Chief Michael Berkow said Specialist McCraw had been shot to death, but he declined to comment on how many times Specialist McCraw had been shot or to discuss a possible motive for the shooting.
Private Horton had been incarcerated since July 3 on felony charges of fraud that allegedly involved the victim’s credit card.
Construction workers discovered Specialist McCraw’s body about 3:38 p.m. on July 2 on a dirt road.
Before Private Horton moved to Topeka to live with his mother, he attended Libbey High School in Toledo for his freshman and sophomore years.
Sylvester Horton, Sr., Private Horton’s father, said he and Sylvester’s mother had divorced when Private Horton was a baby and that he had originally been awarded custody of his son.
When Private Horton was about 16, the elder Mr. Horton said, his son requested that custody be transferred to his mother. The judge granted it.
“He had his choice and he made it,” Mr. Horton said of his son’s decision to live with his mother.
Mr. Horton added that the murder charge came as “a shock.”
At Private Horton’s arraignment Wednesday, Judge Claire Cornwell-Williams denied Private Horton bond on the murder charge.
Information from WTOC-TV in Savannah was used in this report.
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