DELTONA -- A relative of an accused murderer is now facing criminal charges himself after allegations that he helped his cousin ditch the suspect vehicle and then lied about it to Volusia County Sheriff's investigators, an agency spokesman said.
Cedrick Graham was picked up in Deltona on Friday on a felony arrest warrant charging him with being an accessory after-the-fact to first-degree murder.
Graham's arrest is connected to the Dec. 5, 2008, shooting death of 4-year-old Christopher Joseph Mclellan in the crowded parking lot of a
Sunoco on State Road 415.
Graham's cousin, 32-year-old David Wright, Jr., was arrested a week after the shooting and is in jail awaiting trial on charges of 1st-degree murder and aggravated battery. Numerous people at the gas station witnessed the murder and saw the suspect drive off in a black Ford pickup truck.
Sheriff's investigators tracked the pickup truck to a rental agency in Orange City, where it was turned in the day after the murder and exchanged for a Mitsubishi Galant. The following day, while deputies were investigating the murder, Graham was arrested in the Galant on an open warrant. He also was charged with drug offenses after a small amount of cocaine and marijuana were found in the vehicle.
During an interview after his arrest, the 20-year-old Graham told investigators that he got the car from a crack addict in Sanford. And when he was arrested again later in December, he told investigators that he had no contact with his cousin after the murder. However, both statements were lies, according to information developed during the investigation, Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. According to witnesses who are cooperating with the investigation, Wright routinely had a friend rent cars for him to use, including the black pickup truck he was driving on the night of the murder, he added.
Afterwards, Graham helped trade in the pickup truck for the Galant so that his cousin could switch vehicles, Davidson said. Based on information developed by Sheriff's investigator John Johnson, the lead investigator in the case, an arrest warrant was issued for Graham on March 23. Graham was picked up Friday by deputies, who also found two Oxycodone tablets and a small amount of cocaine on him.
Graham, who resides in Sanford, was transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach and is being held on $27,500 bond.