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SALT LAKE CITY — A federal grand jury has handed up a four-count indictment against a Uintah County man accused of killing one person and wounding another in a shooting on the Uintah-Ouray Indian Reservation.
Grant Hubert Checora was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court on charges of murder in the second-degree while within Indian Country, attempt to commit murder while within Indian Country, and two counts of use and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Checora, 21, is accused of shooting into a group of people during a confrontation that happened just before 2 a.m. June 11 in Fort Duchesne's Little Chicago subdivision. Evan Cuch, 23, was wounded and died a short time later at Uintah Basin Medical Center in Roosevelt.
One teen was treated for a gunshot wound at the hospital as well, sources told the Deseret News. A second teen was apparently grazed by a bullet but did not require treatment, authorities said.
Bureau of Indian Affairs police and the FBI have declined to discuss a possible motive for the shooting, but a June 11 post on Checora's Facebook page may offer one.
"Calling all homies to Fort Duchesne," Checora apparently wrote in the post. "(N-word) gonna get it for hitting my women and my brother and sister-in-law. We gonna post up for these dumb (n-word) who wanna jump me and my family. If y'all got my back."
Checora, who is an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe, has been held in the Duchesne County Jail on tribal court charges that were filed after the shooting. A date for his first appearance in federal court had not been set Wednesday.
