The 19-year-old Fort Bliss private who was found dead in her barracks after accusing another soldier of sexual assault died of an accidental drug overdose, the Army said this week.
Asia Graham’s death on New Year’s Eve 2020 was officially determined to be “accidental mixed drug intoxication,” according to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner.
The autopsy showed that she ODed on the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl as well as “multiple synthetic cannabinoids,” the Army said Wednesday, the latter referring to compounds found in cannabis.
The North Carolina native — a private first class in the 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade — was found unresponsive in her barracks room on the Texas base on New Year’s Eve morning.
Graham months earlier had reported a sexual assault by another soldier, with her family complaining that the Army did nothing to help her.
Fellow Pfc. Christian Alvarado, 21, faces a slew of charges related to alleged sex assaults on Graham and other women, with his court-martial starting on-site this week, KTSM said.
Alvarado had “continued to have sex with Asia [Graham] while she was passed out” after heavy drinking, and texts showed he had “choked and digitally penetrated another victim,” prosecutors said in opening statements, the station said.
Giving evidence in the ongoing hearing Wednesday, he told the court-martial that he had been molested as a child, started stealing cars at 10 and was “designated” for a gang in high school.
He admitted that Graham had been one of dozens of women he said he had sex with, and blamed his legal woes on the #MeToo movement for demonizing “drunk sex,” the outlet reported.