ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A man charged in connection with the homicide of a man found dead inside a home in Ann Arbor has been bound over for trial.
Christopher Cheatham, 25, was arrested on July 31, 2019 in the death of 71-year-old Richard Fortune. He waived his preliminary exam on Thursday and was bound over for trial.
Police said the "suspicious death" happened around 5 p.m. Feb. 20 at a home on Lillian Road near Packard Road and U.S. 23.
Cheatham is charged with homicide -- open murder -- statutory short form; three counts of stealing/retaining a financial transaction device without consent; illegal use/sale of a financial transaction device; and two counts of receiving and concealing stolen property worth less than $200.
READ: Neighbors shocked by death of Ann Arbor man
Officers had been monitoring the home that night when firefighters were called there for a medical emergency. When they arrived, they called police to the scene.
Neighbors said Fortune was generous and loved flowers. They said he would set up flower vases outside his house for people to take home.
"He was a chrysanthemum fanatic," a neighbor said. "He had a greenhouse, dahlias."
Police said an autopsy confirmed this as a homicide case.