INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Prosecutors charged two men with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of three people in Independence, Mo.
Antonio Cervantes III, 32, and Kevin Finley, 33, were charged with nine counts of criminal activity, including three counts of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, burglary and first-degree assault with serious injury.
Cervantes and Finley are suspected in the shooting deaths of 48-year-old Maria Hernandez, her son, Antonio Hernandez, 19, and Tomas Dominguez, boyfriend of Maria, in an early-morning home invasion robbery at a home in the 1500 block of S. Pope Street in Independence on November 16.
A fourth victim, identified by family members as a 12-year-old boy, previously reported as 16, was seriously wounded in the shooting. He is expected to be okay.
Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker credits good police work with the quick arrest of Cervantes.
Authorities say that Cervantes knew the victims, and that the shooting was not a random event and likely drug-related.
