Sailor to Stand Trial in 2 Slayings
A Navy man accused in the execution-style murders of his two sleeping roommates was ordered Monday to stand trial.
Christopher Aaron Welters, an 18-year-old sailor from Minnesota who was stationed on the amphibious transport dock Cleveland, will stand trial on two counts of murder in the deaths of two sailors who were stationed on the amphibious assault ship Tarawa.
Thomas Wayne Grant, 24, of Florida, and Thomas John Gulka, 22, of Ohio, were each killed by a single shot in the head early on the morning of March 31.
According to testimony Monday at Welters’ preliminary hearing, both men apparently were asleep in the apartment they shared with Welters on Lantara Drive in City Heights.
Las Vegas police arrested Welters two days after the slayings in the parking lot of the Circus Circus hotel, where he was getting into a red Jeep Wrangler. A 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol was found in a safe in the room he had occupied, police said.
Testimony also indicated that the Jeep and gun had belonged to Gulka. Ballistics evidence indicates that the two men were shot with the type of gun found in Welters’ possession, according to testimony.
Municipal Court Judge Jay M. Bloom scheduled a May 26 arraignment in Superior Court. Welters remains in custody without bail.
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