‘Unclean’ Sex Led To Murder, Cadet Says

An Air Force Academy cadet reportedly told police he had killed a 16-year-old girl because their one-time fling was an “unclean act” that enraged his fiancee and threatened the “purity” of their relationship.

The cadet, David Graham, is charged along with his fiancee, Diane Zamora, an 18-year-old mid-shipman at the U.S. Naval Academy, in the slaying of Adrianne Jones. The 16-year-old was found beaten with weights and shot Dec. 4 in Grand Prairie, Texas.

According to authorities, Graham’s fiancee ordered him to kill Jones after Graham admitted having had sex with the younger woman in a car parked behind a school.

Graham, 18, told police in a statement that he “convinced myself that Diane was even worth murder. After Diane gave me the ultimatum, I thought long and hard about how to carry out the crime. I was stupid, but I was in love,” The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday.

“Well, Diane’s beautiful eyes always have played the strings of my heart effortlessly,” he said.

Graham’s lawyer said police had coerced him into making the statement.

According to Navy sources cited last week in The Baltimore Sun, Zamora confessed when another first-year female midshipman idly asked her: “What’s the worst thing you have ever done in your life?”

Zamora’s answer was murder, Zamora’s roommate told academy officials.

Zamora signed a confession before her arrest on a murder charge Friday, police said. She was being held on $250,000 bail at a Fort Worth jail.

Graham is being held without bail at Colorado Springs, Colo., awaiting extradition to Texas.

The Morning News quoted Graham as saying he and Zamora had shared a “perfect and pure” relationship that was tarnished by “that one girl that had stolen from us our purity” with a single “unclean act.”

“When this precious relationship we had was damaged by my thoughtless actions, the only thing that could satisfy her womanly vengeance was the life of the one who had, for an instant, taken her place,” he said.

Graham said he had planned to break Jones’ neck, but as the young woman struggled, Zamora struck her with weightlifting weights; then he shot her with a 9mm pistol when she ran.

“I didn’t have any harsh feelings for Adrianne, but no one could stand between me and Diane,” Graham said.

Graham’s lawyer, Dan Cogdell, said his client will plead innocent.

“The statement was taken after 30 hours’ worth of interrogation after he was denied counsel, promised that he was better off without a lawyer, promised that if he gave a statement he would receive probation and threatened with capital murder if he did not make a statement,” Cogdell said.