A 24-year-old US Army soldier allegedly shot dead a man “execution-style” in an apartment near an Alaska base, police said.
Adayus Robertson was arrested on Friday on murder charges after the body of 37-year-old Joseph Casas was found with a gunshot wound to the head in a Fairbanks apartment, according to a police statement shared on Facebook on Monday.
Robertson is an active-duty soldier stationed with the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright on the outskirts of Fairbanks, according to Tribune News Service.
US Army soldier, Adayus Robertson — based at Fort Wainwright in Alaska — has been arrested and charged with murder. APGunfire was heard at the apartment just before 10 a.m. on Friday, where officers found Fairbanks resident Casas had been shot in the head, as per police reports.
Casas was later pronounced dead at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, according to officers.
“It appeared that Casas had a back-to-front penetration gunshot wound,” an emergency room doctor told police, officers wrote in the complaint. “It appeared Casas had been executed.”
GPS tracking data showed Robertson at the scene of the shooting before walking away, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the murder case.
The pair was in the same room when the shot was heard, witnesses told police.
Robertson was in the bathroom with a woman when he left her alone, the female witness told police, as reported by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
Suddenly, she heard a loud bang before Robertson told her they needed to leave, she said. “He picked stuff up off the table before we left,” before mumbling how “messed up” the situation was, as per the woman’s statement.
Robertson (not pictured) fatally shot a man at an apartment in Fairbanks, according to police. 27th Public Affairs DetachmentHe was found with two other people at the Big Dipper Ice Arena in Fairbanks later on Friday with a handgun magazine on him, according to police.
One of the men with him said he “thought he was going to be next,” and was in the bathroom when the gun went off, according to the complaint.
Casas “didn’t deserve what happened to him,” the man told officers, before agreeing that the shooting was an execution, as per the complaint.
A .40 caliber Glock was recovered from a trash bin near the scene of the shooting by an officer following tracks in the snow.
Robertson, was on house arrest at the base over two previous charges at the time. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska DistrictThe gun was purchased by a relative of Robertson, according to the police statement.
He faces charges of first-degree murder and evidence tampering as well as violating probation for two prior open cases.
A judge on Sunday set his bail at $2.5 million.
Casas had been “bouncing around and saying a lot of crazy stuff,” Robertson told a detective before he then asked to speak to an attorney and declined to provide any other information, the police statement said.
Robertson enlisted in the Army in 2023 and Fort Wainwright is his first and only duty station, according to division spokesperson Lt. Col. Leah Ganoni.
He is a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Specialist whose rank is Private First Class.
Robertson (not pictured) had been stationed at Fort Wainwright since 2023. Fort Wainwright Public Affairs OfficeRobertson — who was on pretrial ankle monitoring associated with a felony assault case filed last month — knew Casas, according to police.
He allegedly pistol-whipped a woman in January and was charged with assault on March 19, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
Robertson paid a $10,000 cash bail and was released several days later, before leaving house arrest on the base, which led to him facing a separate escape charge on March 27.
On April 1, Robertson was allowed to leave the base after a judge modified the conditions of his release to remove house arrest.
